The youngest pupils in Wales will be able to return to school this month, the education minister has announced.
Kirsty Williams confirmed pupils aged between three and seven in the foundation phase will return to the classroom for the first time this year after the half-term break. You can keep up to date with the latest reaction to the announcement in our rolling live coverage here.
First Minister Mark Drakeford said in the latest lockdown review last week that any available "headroom" if coronavirus case rates fell would be used to get pupils back into school.
On Friday Ms Williams confirmed plans for the youngest children to return to school from February 22 in a briefing where she was joined by the deputy chief medical officer for Wales Dr Chris Jones.
See everything they said by reading their speech in full:
Kirsty Williams: "Prynhawn da – good afternoon.
"We are here today to discuss the next steps we are taking to enable some of our young people to return to school. I am joined by the deputy chief medical officer, Dr Chris Jones.
"I would first like to put on the record my thanks to Dr Jones and his team who continue to work around the clock throughout this pandemic ensuring that ministers have the most up-to-date and accurate advice and evidence when we are making our decisions.
"Before I go on to the subject of schools I would like to start with an update on vaccinations. The very latest figures, published just minutes ago, show that we’ve now passed the half a million mark for vaccinations in Wales. I, and I’m sure all of you, would like to commend our NHS and everyone else who is involved in this tremendous effort.
"So onto education. Our independent Technical Advisory Group are today publishing their latest evidence so that everybody can see what has guided the Welsh Government’s decision. The group have been very clear that, in order to have the headroom for pupils to return to school, there are national indicators that must be heading in the right direction.
"Dr Jones will now briefly present and explain this data."
Dr Chris Jones: "Thank you minister.
"The Technical Advisory Group has published a new paper today showing the current position of the pandemic in Wales and providing advice about how schools could start to safely re-open.
"We are clear that the ability to relax the current restrictions remains limited by the presence of the new variant, which is more transmissible than before.
"However, with R currently below one, there is some headroom for a phased return of primary school children, who have a lower risk of infection but who are at risk of harm while not in school.
"To enable restrictions to be eased in any way we need to see positive trends in a range of data.
"I am pleased to say that case numbers, levels of community transmission, and test positivity rates are decreasing.
"I will now go through that data.
"We are seeing a steady and consistent fall in the weekly number of new cases of coronavirus in Wales. We’ve fallen back from the peak of 650 cases per 100,000 people to around 127 cases today.
"In fact cases are now lower than at previous points when schools were fully open.
"This is really encouraging, particularly given the presence of the new variant, and is the result of everyone’s efforts and sacrifices over the last seven weeks.
"Any relaxation of measures should be undertaken in a phased way looking at the balance of harms and our continuing assessment of the risks, including pressure on the NHS.
"As you can see on this slide while the number of people in hospital with coronavirus remains substantial it has stabilised and is starting to fall.
"We will continue to monitor this carefully, alongside our other indicators, in assessing the potential impact of any changes before each new phase of more pupils returning.
"Keeping the reproduction number – the R rate – below one is also an important measure in allowing a return to more face-to face learning.
"As you can see from this slide Sage estimates R in Wales to be currently between 0.7 and 0.9 consistent with falling case rates.
"It compares well to the position in the summer and is significantly down from the period before Christmas.
"Before handing back to the minister I want to give a quick update on our vaccination progress.
"As the minister has already said more than 523,000 people, more than one in six of the population, have had their first dose of the vaccine.
"This slide clearly shows the speed at which we’re vaccinating people in Wales.
"In the last week we vaccinated more people as a percentage of our population than any of the other UK nations.
"We remain on course to offer vaccinations to everyone in the first four priority groups by mid-February."
Use this tool to check the latest figures on Covid-19 cases in your area:
Kirsty Williams: "Thank you Doctor Jones.
"We have been clear that our children’s education is a priority throughout this pandemic.
"Sadly we are not yet in a position to be able to see a full return to school for every learner. However, thanks to people following our national guidance, there is a sufficient headroom for us to bring some of our learners in a phased, flexible, and progressive way back into the classroom.
"After half term, from February 22, our foundation phase learners will start to return to school during that week. Children of critical workers and vulnerable learners, as well as those taking exams or assessments and learners in special schools, will continue to be able to attend as they have done throughout the pandemic.
"We have prioritised our youngest learners because of the favourable evidence on transmission in younger children and also because we know they find it the most difficult to learn remotely.
"Small numbers of vocational learners, including apprentices, will also be able to return to colleges. Again this is because of difficulties with remote learning as they will need to access training or workplace environments in order to undertake their practical qualifications.
"Following productive discussions with our union colleagues and local authority and further education partners we are introducing a number of additional measures to provide staff with an added level of assurance for their safe return to face-to-face teaching.
"This includes the introduction of twice-weekly testing for staff members as well as increased financial support for new face coverings. We are providing an additional £5m to support schools, colleges, and local authorities to invest further in items they need to keep their premises safe.
"As we all know you only get one childhood, which is exactly why we are all working so hard to support young people back into schools so they can learn with their friends.
"However I must be absolutely clear: we are told time and time again that our education premises are safe but it is the added movement around them that contributes to the R number.
"So I must make a plea to all learners, to parents, and carers: please continue to follow the guidelines. By following the guidance restricting contact with others we are able to ensure that our children and young people are able to do what we all want, which is to be back learning alongside their friends.
"Thank you very much – we will now take questions from journalists."
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