Shielding will be paused in Wales from the end of March.
Since December 22 people in Wales who are particularly vulnerable to the virus have been told they need to shield and not go to work or school.
Cases had risen to such a point that the threat to them was deemed to be too great to allow the freedom they have known since the summer.
In a statement on Friday, Vaughan Gething, minister for health and social services, said that this advice will come to an end at the end of March.
“From 22nd December the advice to the clinically extremely vulnerable has been that they should no longer attend work or school outside the home and should remain at home as much as possible,” Mr Gething said.
“This change was made in the context of cases of coronavirus rising exponentially, alongside the identification of a new variant of coronavirus circulating in Wales. This advice is in place until 31st March.”
Explaining the change Mr Gething said: “Case prevalence is now significantly below what it was in December and on a trend downwards across Wales. Conscious of the associated harms when asking people to follow shielding measures, we must only keep this advice in place for as long as is absolutely necessary.
“In light of the change of context, the Chief Medical Officer has recommended that the advice to the clinically extremely vulnerable to follow shielding measures should be paused after the 31 st March.”
The health minister refused to rule out the chance that the shielding rules may be introduced again in the future.
He said: ”It is important to note that just as we are planning relaxations and the first dose of the vaccine has been offered to all of this group, experience has shown that we do need to be prepared to potentially step advice up again if required.
“The shielding patient list will remain in place and available should we need to ask anyone to follow shielding measures again in future. It is my sincere hope that this will not be necessary.”
This announcement came the same day First Minister Mark Drakeford announced the return of the five-mile-rule in Wales. You can read more about that here.
