Up to 30 people will be able to meet outdoors in Wales

Up to 30 people will be able to meet outdoors from Monday (August 3), First Minister Mark Drakeford announced today (Friday, July 31).

As part of further measures to ease Wales’ lockdown, children under the age of 11 will no longer have to social distance from each other or from adults from Monday.

Welsh Government has said the new policy is in line with the latest scientific evidence about lower coronavirus transmission rates among children.

Monday will also mark the reopening of pubs, restaurants, bars and cafes indoors, as well as indoor bowling alleys, auction houses and bingo halls.

Gyms, leisure centres, swimming pools, spas, indoor play areas, including soft play areas, are set to reopen from Monday, August 10, if conditions allow.

The First Minister said: “We are becoming accustomed to living with coronavirus but we shouldn’t forget the danger it poses.

“This is a deadly disease and the risk to our health has not gone away – as we can see in parts of Europe where there have been new outbreaks and new measures introduced to control its spread.

“The rates of the virus in Wales remain low, allowing us to relax the restrictions further over the next few weeks, but we can only do this if everyone continues to take steps to protect themselves and their loved ones.

“Businesses are required to take all reasonable measures to minimise the risk of spreading the virus on their premises. They have worked really hard to put in place measures to protect staff and customers. And we all need to do our bit too by complying with these and to keep our distance whenever we leave home and meet others.”

Mr Drakeford added: “To the small minority who aren’t following the rules – we will take action.

“We’re working with our enforcement authorities here in Wales to ensure they have the powers and resources they need. I want to make sure all the measures developed to keep us safe are complied with.”

He also warned that we are facing “the likelihood of a resurgence of the virus over the autumn and winter” and that the situation “will not be over by Christmas”.

He added: “If we stop now, there is a real risk we will see new outbreaks of coronavirus and we may have to reverse some of these restrictions to control its spread again.”

The latest figures from Public Health Wales showed two coronavirus-related deaths were recorded in Wales on Thursday (July 30), with nine new cases recorded.

It brings the total number of deaths linked to Covid-19 in Wales to 1,556, with 17,232 recorded cases of the virus.