THE latest three-week review into Wales' coronavirus restrictions will be announced on Friday.

It is hoped that Wales could enter Alert Level 1 for the first time since the start of the second wave of the virus, with rates remaining low across much of Wales.

But with concern growing in Wales and the rest of the UK about the spread of the so-called Indian variant of coronavirus - and some experts in England urging the UK Government to consider delaying its June 21 relaxation of restrictions - there are some difficult decisions ahead.

First Minister Mark Drakeford will hold a briefing later this week to announce any changes to the rules.

At the announcement of the last set of rule changes, which saw indoor hospitality reopen on May 14, Mr Drakeford laid out the changes which could be made at the next review, this week.

They include:

  • Rule of six for indoor visits in private homes
  • Up to 30 people being able to meet outdoors with social distancing
  • Up to three households being able to form an extended household
  • Organised activities for up to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors, including wedding receptions and wakes

At the last review, the first minister said: "If the public health situation remains positive, we will look at whether we can move to alert level one.

"This will include looking at relaxing the rules further around meeting people in their own homes, increasing the number of people able to attend wedding receptions and restarting larger events, building on the experience of our pilot programme, which started [on May 13]."

Last month Mark Drakeford said discussions about reopening nightclubs and indoor live music venues would not take place until June or July and would partly depend on the vaccination of young people.

Asked then if a certain percentage of young people would need to receive a jab before clubs could open, Mr Drakeford told the PA news agency that opening indoor venues would be reliant on the vaccination rate of young people.

“That number is going to keep on rising and rise pretty quickly over the weeks ahead," he said in mid-May, adding: "Every week that goes by does extend the protection that vaccination offers to younger people, and that does mean that the reopening of some of those live venues will get closer."

Drakeford warned that the virus "virus thrives in indoor settings, it thrives when people are close together, it thrives when people spend time together, and it thrives in places where ventilation is not a particularly strong feature of the venue.

“That’s not far off describing a nightclub. So it’s just inevitable those venues will come towards the end of the reopening queue."

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