Up to four households will be allowed to join together in Wales

Up to four households will be able to form an extended household together, First Minister Mark Drakeford is set to announce today.

Currently, only two households can join together as part of an extended household in Wales.

The change is set to come into force from Saturday, August 22, should the coronavirus situation remain stable over the next week.

However, no changes will be made to restrictions banning people meeting indoors with people who aren’t in their extended household.

From next week, businesses in the hospitality sector will be required to collect contact details of customers for contact tracing.

Mr Drakeford said: “These are cautious, step-by-step changes. We are learning from what is happening across the UK and outbreaks are mainly linked to people meeting others inside the home.

“That is why it is so important we don’t invite people outside our extended households into our homes. We have made so much progress and we mustn’t jeopardise this.

“That means we are not at a point where we should be visiting anyone’s home at any time. Regulations on meeting outdoors were recently changed to make it easier to do, and this remains by far the safest way to meet.”

He added: “There are also indications from other parts of the UK where pubs opened earlier than Wales that outbreaks have been linked to those places.

“If we are to avoid introducing local lockdown measures that could require the whole sector to close, it is vital we can quickly respond to any outbreaks.

“Providing our contact details when attending these premises will mean people can be contacted quickly by our Test Trace Protect teams if they may have been exposed to coronavirus.

“This pandemic is far from over and we all still have a duty to do our part to keep Wales safe.”

Figures from Public Health Wales showed 15 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 recorded on Wednesday (August 12), taking the number of cases recorded in Wales to 17,499.

No new deaths were recorded on Wednesday, with the confirmed death toll in Wales currently standing at 1,586.