WHILE many sectors have now been given a start date for when they can resume trading, gym owners and the hospitality sector will have to wait until at least another six weeks for any announcement on their position.

Speaking at a press conference, first minister Mark Drakeford announced that shops which are currently open will no longer be restricted in what they can sell from March 22, with non-essential retailers will be able to reopen from April 12.

When asked about gyms and leisure centres, Mr Drakeford told gym owners “they’ve not been forgotten,” but added they, along with the hospitality sector, would only be first considered for reopening towards the end of April.

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“I understand of course that other businesses and sectors will want to know when it is their turn to open up,” he said. “I understand that everybody wants a definitive date so that they can plan ahead.

“Unfortunately there are very few guarantees in this pandemic.

“I hope we will be able to keep on taking further steps to unlock Wales at each review period during the spring and as we look ahead to the end of April.

“If we continue to see an improving public health picture we will be able to consider what more we can do to support people to meet each other and what we can do to continue reopening our economy, for example looking at outdoor hospitality, the wedding sector, and leisure centres and gyms.

“We will be considering those venues in the cycle immediately after April 12, so it is not as though we are saying to that sector it will be months and months before you'll even be thought about.

“Anything you do indoors is inherently more risky than happens outdoors, and we’ll have to be confident that the public health situation is sufficiently under control for that to happen.

“I absolutely recognise both the mental and physical health case that there is for resuming leisure centre and reopening gyms.

“Gyms and leisure centres will be part of what we will be thinking about then, so they've not been forgotten.

“I hope the fact that outdoor gyms are reopened from this weekend is a bit of a help to people.”

The first minister said that the reopening of the hospitality sector would be phased, only mentioning when outdoor hospitality would be first considered.

“In the second half of April we will look to see whether it is possible to begin the reopening of outdoor hospitality and I don't think we'll be able to go further than that,” he said.

“If we could reopen outdoor hospitality - while that would be fantastic - we want that sector to be able to get back to work and we want to create safe opportunities for people to get together, but we're not at that position today.”

Mr Drakeford stressed that while these sectors were “on the table” to be considered for reopening in the second half of April, this should not be construed as that they will open on any fixed date.