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| Wales to be plunged into two week ‘firebreak’ lockdown from October 23 | Wales to be plunged into two week ‘firebreak’ lockdown from October 23 |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| The Welsh government have announced an over two week ‘firebreak’ lockdown, effective from Friday at 6pm. All non-essential retail, leisure and tourism businesses will shut and people are required to stay at home. | |
| Mark Drakeford, the Welsh First Minister, stated that he needed to act now in order to tackle rising Covid infections and protect the National Health Service (NHS). | |
| Drakeford said that a two-week lockdown is the shortest possible duration for the measures to have the required impact. The First Minister claimed the lockdown is fixed and would finish on November 9. | |
| The measures require that everyone remains at home when possible. All non-essential retail, leisure and tourism businesses will shut and all bars, restaurants and pubs will be forced to close with the exception of takeaway and delivery services. | |
| The First Minister said he was “acutely aware” of the challenges that the 17-day lockdown would create for businesses as he announced that small and medium-sized retail, leisure and hospitality firms could access a one-off payment of as much as £5,000. “We have created an extra economic resilience fund of almost £300m,” he added. | |
| The Welsh government had introduced a number of local lockdowns over the course of the last two weeks and a national lockdown had been expected. Drakeford had previously tweeted that they were considering a time-limited ‘fire-break’ to bring the virus back under control. | |
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