Here are the headlines for Thursday December 23 as hospitality react to new coronavirus restrictions, including the return of the rule of six and social distancing.
Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford announced "strengthened measures" aimed at keeping Wales safe on Wednesday, December 22, as Omicron variant cases continue to rise.
They will be introduced from 6am on Boxing Day and are described as "a revised version" of alert level two restrictions.
Read more: 'We demand answers' - pubs and restaurants react to news rule of six is returning in Wales
The regulations bring back tighter measures for hospitality businesses, including licensed premises, and in cinemas and theatres when they re-open after the festive period.
It means nightclubs must close a day earlier on December 26 than originally planned on December 27. The rules will also mean:
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A general requirement of 2m social distancing in all premises open to the public and workplaces, where reasonable.
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The rule of six will apply to gatherings in regulated premises, such as hospitality, cinemas and theatres.
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All licensed premises will need to take additional measures to protect customers and staff, including table service and collecting contact details.
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Face coverings will be required in hospitality settings at all times apart from when seated.
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Large events will not be allowed indoors or outdoors. The maximum number of people who can gather at an indoor event will be 30 and 50 outdoors.
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There will be an exception for team sports, up to 50 spectators will be able to gather, in addition to those taking part. There is also an exception for events involving children.
Hospitality bosses have met the news with frustration, and called on the Welsh Government to provide more clarity about the new restrictions and the financial support available.
Jonathan Greatorex, landlord of the Hand at Llanarmon in Llangollen said the new restrictions come at a financially crucial time for the industry - most of which is still trying to recover funds lost in previous lockdowns.
He said: "t's a time of year where were make enough money to survive for the next two months. And some businesses are just starting to repay the enormous amounts of money that their business has lost [during the pandemic]. People have already seen their businesses absolutely fall off a cliff edge.
"The word industry when speaking about the "hospitality industry" is slightly disingenuous as it makes us seem like we're a big conglomerate, but we're not. We're a bunch of very small businesses and employ some of the most vulnerable people who are going into Christmas worried about whether they'll have any shifts and worried about whether they're going to have money to pay their rent."
Though Mr Greatorex said while he appreciates the Covid situation is fast moving, he said thinks the industry is being "unfairly targeted".
"We've now got to look at what bookings we've got, we've got to look at separating tables and potentially cancelling tables. We might have a table of seven booked and the group might have to decide which friend to not come out. I appreciate this is an ever changing situation, but these are people's day to day lives. I have a young waitress who asked if she'd be able to buy Christmas presents for her children - that's the reality."
The full reaction from bosses in the sector can be found here.
Economy Minister Vaughan Gething announces support for businesses
Today, the Economy Minister has announced that under the latest package, retail, hospitality, leisure and tourism business who pay Non-Domestic Rates will be entitled to a payment of £2,000, £4,000 or £6,000 depending on their rateable value.
Businesses will be able to register their business through their local authorities from January 10.
In addition, impacted hospitality and leisure businesses and their supply chains will be able to apply for top up funding from a new Economic Resilience Fund (ERF). Eligible businesses can apply for grants of between £2,500k - £25,000, with grants depending on their size and number of employees. The application window for ERF will open in week commencing January 17.
Local authorities will also administer a discretionary fund for business and sole traders who do not pay rates. The fund will provide £500 to sole trader and freelancers and £2,000 to employing businesses in impacted sectors.
Economy Minister, Vaughan Gething, said: “We fully understand the continued challenges faced by businesses, however we are facing a very serious situation in Wales. A wave of infections caused by the new, fast-moving and very-infectious omicron variant is headed our way, this means taking early action to try and control its spread – and limit the impact on Welsh businesses.
“Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve provided over £2.2bn of support to businesses throughout Wales to help them manage their way through difficult circumstances.
“We will continue to monitor the impact of the spread of Omicron on businesses in Wales, and will consider whether additional emergency funding is needed in the new year.”
Children aged five and over are to start receiving Covid jabs in Wales
Children as young as five are to be offered Covid jabs in Wales.
The Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has made two recommendations to expand the Covid vaccination programme to include children aged five to 11.
At this stage children in this age group are only recommended to have the jab if they are considered "at risk" or who are in household contact of someone who is immunosuppressed.
The advice follows the recent decision by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine in younger children.
Children in the relevant group should be offered two 10 microgram doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine with an interval of eight weeks between the first and second doses. The minimum interval between any vaccine dose and recent Covid infection should be four weeks.
At the current time, the JCVI considers the balance of potential benefits and harms is in favour of vaccination for this group. The JCVI has not as yet advised whether children aged 5 to 11, who are not in an “at-risk” category should receive vaccination until more information and evidence is available.
Secondly, the JCVI has recommended offering a COVID-19 booster dose to:
- All children and young people aged 16 to 17 years
- Children and young people aged 12 to 15 who are in a clinical risk group or who are a household contact of someone who is immunosuppressed
- Children and young people aged 12 to 17 years who are severely immuno-compromised and who have had a third primary dose.
The booster dose should be offered no sooner than three months after completion of their primary course.
Appropriate information about the potential benefits and risks of vaccination should be made available for children and young people, parents and guardians to make an informed decision on vaccination.
More than 300 further cases of Omicron confirmed in Wales
More than 300 new cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus have been found in Wales.
It means there are now 941 identified cases of the mutant strain, Public Health Wales has confirmed. However, in reality this is likely to be far higher.
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board has the most cases anywhere in Wales with 225, but Betsi Cadwaladr UHB had the most new cases on Wednesday with 89.
The breakdown of Omicron cases by health board area is as follows:
| Health Board |
Total cases |
| Cardiff and Vale University Health Board |
225 (+77) |
| Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board |
175 (+89) |
| Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board |
182 (+53) |
| Aneurin Bevan University Health Board |
111 (+28) |
| Swansea Bay University Health Board |
163 (+24) |
| Hywel Dda University Health Board |
47 (+16) |
| Powys Teaching Health Board |
37 (+14) |
| Unknown | 1 |
| Total |
941 (+301) |
Rules on close contacts and self-isolation have changed in Wales
Close contacts of people who have Covid-19 will no longer need to self-isolate provided they have been fully vaccinated, the First Minister has confirmed.
Mark Drakeford, as part of the Welsh Government press conference on Wednesday, confirmed that people would now have to take a lateral-flow (LFT) test instead.
The First Minister has not gone as far as England where people with Covid will now have to self-isolate for seven days instead of 10 providing they have a negative test result.
"Fully-vaccinated adults and children aged five to 17 who are identified as contacts of someone who has tested positive for Covid-19 will now be asked to take a daily lateral flow test for seven days instead of self-isolating. This is known as daily contact testing," said Mr Drakeford.
"People who have daily negative tests will be able to continue going to work as normal, while following all the steps to keep themselves safe, including limiting the number of people they mix with as much as possible."
For people who have not been doubly vaccinated and identify as a close contact, they must still self-isolate for 10 days. Children under five are exempt from self-isolation if they are close contacts.
Major report says Omicron Covid variant is milder but high infections remain concern
People who catch the Omicron variant of coronavirus have a lower risk of hospital admission when compared with the Delta strain, a key study has suggested.
A report by the Imperial College, much-awaited by those in the government, says that although the variant is milder, a high number of cases could still overwhelm the NHS, reports The Mirror.
A team consisting of WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Modelling, MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, Jameel Institute and Imperial College London suggest that Omicron cases are 15% less likely to attend hospital.
The team found that these cases are 40% less likely to be hospitalised for a night or more, compared to Delta patients.The new report, called Report 50, includes all PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases in England between 1-14 December where the variant causing infection could be identified from genetic data or via S gene target failure (SGTF).
The data set included 56,000 cases of Omicron and 269,000 cases of Delta.
However, the team stressed that transmissibility remains high.
Prof Neil Ferguson, dubbed 'Professor Lockdown' for his advocating of extreme measures to slow the Covid spread, warned: "However, this appears to be offset by reduced efficacy of vaccines against infection with Omicron.
"Given high transmissibility, there remains the potential for health services to face increasing demand if cases continue to grow at rate that in recent weeks," he warned.
In another study, a pre-print study published on Wednesday, scientists in the Scotland-wide Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of Covid-19 made similar findings.
They said that the early data suggested that Omicron is associated with a two-thirds reduction in risk of hospital admission when compared with the strain which used to be dominant in the country.
Dr Jim McMenamin, the national Covid-19 incident director for Public Health Scotland, labelled the findings a "qualified good-news story", but said that it was "important we don't get ahead of ourselves".
Covid infection 'three times bigger in five to 11-year-olds'
Covid infections among five to 11-year-olds are three times more prevalent than in the general population, a Government-backed study has found.
An estimated 4.47% of primary school-aged children have the virus in contrast with 1.41% across the country overall, according to the research.
REACT-1, a joint study by Imperial College London and Ipsos Mori, analysed data from 97,000 volunteers in England to examine national Covid-19 levels between November 23 and December 14.
It predicted the rapidly spreading Omicron variant will become the dominant strain across the country more than three times faster than Delta overtook Alpha.
But the speed of the vaccine rollout to secondary school-aged children and the booster rollout among adults may have helped to curb infection rates among other age groups, researchers said.
The prevalence of Covid-19 in secondary school-aged children, previously the worst-affected age group, more than halved, while among those aged 75 and over it dropped by approximately two-thirds.
Scientists added the figures were taken from a time period when Omicron was only just starting to take hold.
Professor Paul Elliott, who led the study, said the findings showed the R value, the average number of secondary cases produced by one infected person, began shooting up at the start of December.
Viral sequencing data up to December 11 showed that 11 out of 650 cases were the Omicron variant and the rest were Delta.
“From December the proportion of samples which are Omicron has been rapidly increasing, reflecting both the replacement of Delta by Omicron but also the rapid rise in Omicron,” Prof Elliott said.
The study showed the spread is most rapid in London, where the R value started at an estimated 1.41 overall but rose later in December to 1.62.
Prof Elliott said the odds of an infection being Omicron instead of Delta were estimated to increase at a rate of 66% a day – 3.5 times faster than the rate at which Delta outcompeted the Alpha variant.
It comes after the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine was approved for use in vulnerable primary schoolchildren.
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