Restrictions on indoor care home visits in Wales set to be lifted with more households able to mix

Restrictions on indoor visits to care homes are set to be lifted in Wales from next weekend, the First Minister Mark Drakeford will confirm later today.

He will say the change, which will come into effect on Saturday 29 August,  is subject to the strict controls set out in the coronavirus guidance, along with conditions remaining favourable,

The First Minister will also say that from tomorrow, extended households can expand to include up to four households in an exclusive, extended arrangement.

Weddings and funerals will also be able to include a meal for up to 30 people, in suitably socially distant settings.

However, he will also warn that despite the latest easing of lockdown restrictions in Wales, now is not the time to move away from the careful and cautious approach taken so far.

He will say: “While coronavirus remains effectively suppressed in Wales and cases continue to fall, the situation in the rest of the UK and further afield is still problematic.

“Coronavirus has not gone away and so, as we move out of lockdown and look to the future, it is important we do this in a careful and cautious way.”