First Minister Mark Drakeford gave a briefing on the coronavirus outbreak in Wales today (May 22).
Here is a summary of what he had to say:
The Welsh Government is looking at options for allowing family and friends in Wales to meet again
500 people in Wales will take part in Oxford-led vaccine trial
Public urged to stay home over bank holiday weekend as fines for repeat offenders increase
It is “too early to know" if relaxed lockdown restrictions have affected the transmission rate of coronavirus
Lockdown review to take place again next week
Welsh Government considering safe options for allowing family and friends to meet again
Speaking at the Welsh Government coronavirus briefing on Friday, First Minister Mark Drakeford said he knows that people are missing contact with family and friends the most during lockdown.
“Over the week leading up to the changes in regulations in Wales we are focusing very much on this issue, looking to see whether there are models that would allow people to be able to do more of that, provided it is done in the safest of conditions,” he said.
He said he hoped the Welsh Government would have more to say about this next week, when restrictions are set to be reviewed, but that changes will only occur if it is safe to do so.
He said he believes people in Wales remain generally “on the side” of the Welsh Government with regard to easing lockdown slowly.
'Too early to know' whether relaxed measures have increased circulation of the virus
Asked whether relaxed measures in Wales have, to date, impacted the R-rate, or transmission rate, of the virus, Mr Drakeford said he didn’t believe they had.
He said when he saw the R-rate earlier this week, it remained at 0.8.
“It is probably still just a bit too early to know whether those measures are yet feeding into an increase circulation of the virus in the community,” Mr Drakeford said.
"The headroom we have to make changes is still very narrow, even at 0.8.”
He said extra measures we take moving forward will continue to be modest and careful.
"[The R-rate] would not have to drift much above where it is now for even that headroom to narrow considerably,” he added.
Vaccine trials to begin in Wales
Mr Drakeford said Wales is playing a significant part in the search for a vaccine by participating in an Oxford-led trial.
One of the "main candidate vaccines" will be used on 500 people in Wales "as part of the global effort to find protection against the virus", he said.
He said this weekend the Welsh Government will also begin contacting people who have tested positive for the virus to be part of four small-scale contact tracing trials.
These developments will help strengthen our immediate and future responses to the crisis, he said.
