Wales’ stay-at-home lockdown will be extended until March 13, the Welsh government announces today.
The country’s stay-at-home order will last another three weeks from this weekend, First Minister Mark Drakeford said.
Children aged three to seven are due to return to school from this coming Monday as case rates of Covid hit their lowest since September.
But all other primary pupils, and all secondary and college students, will not return to school until Monday 15 March at the earliest.
Whether they return at that point will only be decided in the new review of the regulations - which will also consider rules on non-essential shops, hairdressers and other “close contact” services.
It comes as Boris Johnson prepares to unveil his roadmap out of England’s lockdown on Monday, with schools set to return from March 8.
In Scotland, pupils in the first three primary school years and some secondary pupils who need to do essential practical work will go back on February 22.
But similarly to Wales, all other pupils will have to stay at home until at least March 15.
Earlier this week Boris Johnson said discussions will continue with Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford and the other devolved nations over whether the UK will leave lockdown at the same time.
The Prime Minister said it was "encouraging" that coronavirus infection appeared to be falling across the whole of the UK following the mass vaccine rollout.
Mr Johnson was speaking from a mass coronavirus vaccination centre at Cwmbran Stadium in Cwmbran, south Wales, as part of a series of Covid-19-related visits in the country on Wednesday.
Asked if he wanted the whole of the UK to leave lockdown in sync, he said: "We have continuous conversations with Mark Drakeford, with other representatives of the devolved administrations, about how to do it, just as we work on the vaccination programme together.
"We try and make sure we concert our approach and our general messages.
"I think that, overall, if you look at infection rates across the UK, they are coming down a bit now. That's very encouraging.
"The big questions people will want to ask is to what extent now is that being driven by vaccination. We hope it is, there are some encouraging signs, but it's still early days."
