First Minister Mark Drakeford has explained why he has stopped people having a drink with lunch in a restaurant under tough new restrictions to stop the rise of Covid-19.
Under the rules all cafes, pubs, bars and restaurants in Wales will have to close at 6pm and can not sell alcohol at any time.
When WalesOnline asked the First Minister why he had stopped all sale of alcohol in these premises even when they are closing at 6pm anyway he said that it was important not to "chip away" at the restrctions.
"It is the package deal," he said. "All of these aspects are looked at individually and then looked at in the round. We looked very carefully yesterday at the issue of whether alcohol could be allowed.
"But the advice we had was that that would be to erode the public health advantage that we see from the measures that are being taken in Scotland and we want to capture that public health benefit here in Wales."
Mr Drakeford explained that there were always arguments against certain restrictions but claims to be drawing on the scientific available to him.
He said: "This is what I have found, you can always find a reason to chip away at the restrictions we are putting in place. You can often make a case for something in isolation ‘why don’t you allow that?’ or ‘why don’t you allow something else?’.
"But the effect of that cumulatively is that you undermine the effectiveness of the measures that you are taking. So that is why we decided to stick with the Scottish example which Sage says has been successful and not to allow alcohol in those settings."
Despite the early closure of much hospitality as well as the total closure of cinemas and bowling alleys, all gyms and leisure centres in Wales are allowed to remain open.
According to the First Minister this is because of the mental health benefits associated with exercise.
"On gyms and leisure centres the thing that persuaded us there is the mental health benefit to people of been able to take exercise," he said.
"A different case can be made and you are always trying to weigh up the different harms. We know that coronavirus has had a huge impact on people's well being and mental health. The ability to go out and take exercises is, for some people, one of the things that mitigates that the most.
"Weighing that in with the public health evidence from elsewhere led us to the conclusion that we should keep those things open even while we were having to bring in restrictions in hospitality."
The reason the Welsh Government are so keen to take action to tackle the virus is because of a spike in cases in Wales over the last two weeks. The R rate in Wales is now 1.4 - meaning the virus is growing quickly and the gains made during the fire-break are being lost.
