Lockdown measures will continue in Wales and will “intensify even further”, First Minister Mark Drakeford has said.
“It means bringing schools into line with the rest of the lockdown regime, so schools in Wales will now remain on remote learning until January 29 at the earliest,” Mr Drakeford told BBC Breakfast.
“We are looking at the workplace with our trade union and other colleagues to see if there are further safeguards that we can put in place to make sure that workplaces are safe, given the fact that the new variant is so much easier to catch than the previous version of coronavirus.
“And we’re looking at supermarkets and other places where people leave their homes and go to, to make sure that they are organised in a way that keeps their staff and their customers safe.”
– Will Wales and Northern Ireland follow suit on borders?
Grant Shapps said that he is “pretty certain” that Wales and Northern Ireland will also introduce the requirement, adding: “I suspect it will be a UK-wide requirement from some point next week.”
He defended the Government against allegations it should have closed the border before, saying the UK as an island needs the movement of goods and people.
“Look what happened in the United States, for example, where they did last March entirely closed the border,” he added.
“It hasn’t helped them at all, not one iota.”
