Mark Drakeford has confirmed that Wales will not see all Covid restrictions lifted on June 21, even if all measures are lifted in England.
During the Welsh Government's weekly coronavirus press conference, the First Minister ruled out a lifting of all control measures on June 21. When asked by WalesOnline if he would follow suit if England proceeded with their planned lifting he said: "We don't follow suit. That has never been the way we have dealt with the whole coronavirus crisis. We make the right decisions for Wales and we make them for ourselves in our own circumstances.
"England will make the decisions that people in charge there think are right for them and we will make our own decisions. We will not be lifting every restriction in Wales from June 21."
Mr Drakeford said that particularly with the new Delta variant and the probability of a third wave of infections lifting all restrictions in Wales was the right thing to do.
Despite the First Minister's suggestions, the Welsh Government has not always gone its own way. Last year, the Welsh Government followed the UK Government during the first two months of the pandemic until early May 2020. You can read about how the pandemic drove the development of Wales' devolved consciousness here.
When asked how he will manage different restrictions being in place on either side of the border, especially as people travelled extensively between the two countries over summer, Mr Drakeford said that most people were "scrupulous" at following the rules when they came on holiday to Wales.
"We will continue to communicate to visitors who come to Wales about the circumstances that pertain when they come here," he said. "We are very used to it by now."
He added: "We did all of this last summer when people were able to travel into Wales for a holiday and different rules applied in different part of the UK. It is an effort, you have got to make sure that people are given the information they need and are alerted to it by road sign use and so on but the evidence from last year was that people who visit wales are keen to know the rules that apply here and in the vast majority of cases are scrupulous in the approach that they take as well."
