UK coronavirus live: Wales publishes lockdown-easing roadmap with ‘stay home’ in place for another two weeks

The Welsh government has made it clear that schools in Wales will not fully open before September.

Speaking at his government’s daily press conference, the first minister Mark Drakeford said the ambition remained for some cohorts of children to return to school before the summer holidays. He said more details would be given later today.

The Welsh government has not put dates on its roadmap out of lockdown (see 12.31pm.). Drakeford said he preferred a “sequence” or “pathway” rather than specific “arbitary” dates.

He said:

The journey has begun. We have begun to move out of the lockdown phase. For all of us the journey needs to be taken carefully, cautiously.

Drakeford appealed for people in England not to travel to Wales this weekend, warning police would stop them and turn them back if they did. “Please visit Wales later,” he said. “Now is not the moment.”

He added:

Our rules are clear. Travel should only be local and only for essential purposes.” He said people should not travel to beauty spots or second homes.

An eighth resident has died at a care home at the centre of a Covid-19 outbreak on Skye.

It emerged on Thursday that the Care Inspectorate, which regulates the industry in Scotland, had asked a sheriff to strip the care home’s owners, HC-One, of its licence to operate after finding serious shortcomings in its management.

The decision came after an unannounced inspection of the Home Farm facility in Portree, Skye’s main town, that raised “serious and significant concerns” about the quality of care.

The care home has been under intense scrutiny after it emerged earlier this month that nearly all of its 34 residents and half of its staff had contracted Covid-19.

Very little progress was made in UK/EU talks on future trade arrangements, Britain’s chief negotiator David Frost has said.

He said:

We have just completed our third negotiating round with the EU. I regret however that we made very little progress towards agreement on the most significant outstanding issues between us.

He added that it was “very clear that a standard Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, with other key agreements on issues like law enforcement, civil nuclear, and aviation alongside, all in line with the Political Declaration, could be agreed without major difficulties in the time available”. However:

The major obstacle to this is the EU’s insistence on including a set of novel and unbalanced proposals on the so-called ‘level playing field’ which would bind this country to EU law or standards, or determine our domestic legal regimes, in a way that is unprecedented in Free Trade Agreements and not envisaged in the Political Declaration.

As soon as the EU recognises that we will not conclude an agreement on that basis, we will be able to make progress.

Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed a decrease of 31 people in hospital with suspected or confirmed coronavirus in Scotland, as well as a further 46 deaths taking the total by this measure to 2,053.

As of this morning, there have been 14,260 positive cases confirmed – an increase of 143 from yesterday, the first minister said.

Tributes have been paid to a “selfless” nurse and former rugby player who died after testing positive for coronavirus.

Andy Collier, 53, a nurse practitioner at Hollins Park Hospital in Warrington, Cheshire, died on 15 April, a spokesman for the North West Boroughs Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust said.

He was admitted to the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan after becoming seriously ill on 31 March and died with his wife Carol by his bedside.

Collier, who ran The First and Last pub in Leigh with his wife, had previously played for Wigan and Leigh Centurions rugby league clubs.

His ward manager Rob Kelly said:

Andy was all about putting other people first – whether that was patients on the ward or his colleagues across the trust. He was very down to earth, fair and selfless.

I will remember him as a team player and someone who was passionate about bringing people together on our team development days to improve our environment for staff and patients.

The team has raised a few virtual glasses to Andy and we will miss him massively.

The Welsh government has published its roadmap out of lockdown (pdf), which includes a red, amber and green traffic light system spelling out how restrictions may be lifted.

The first minister Mark Drakeford said the roadmap was part of “a cautious, coherent approach” to easing lockdown, and that for the next two weeks at least its “stay home” message – stricter than England – would remain in place.

He said:

We, like countries across the world, are able to think about how we can move out of the lockdown. But it is essential as we do so that we recognise this is not a short-term crisis. Until there is a vaccine or effective treatments, we will have to live with the disease in our society and try to control its spread and mitigate its effects.

Drakeford said Wales strongly supported a four-nation approach to the lifting of the lockdown but said this had to respect the responsibilities of each government to determine the speed at which it is safe to move.

He added:

For the next two weeks, at least, I urge everyone in Wales to stick to the advice: ‘Stay home, protect our NHS and save lives’.

The traffic light categories take in a wide number of areas of life and activities, including schools, seeing family and friends, getting around, playing sport, work, shopping and practising faith.

The government says Wales may well be on “red” for one type of activity, “amber” for another and still in lockdown for a third.

Under “seeing family and friends”, for example, Wales is still in complete lockdown. The next phase – red – would be seeing one person from outside your household to provide or receive care or support whilst maintaining appropriate physical distancing.

But Wales is already in the red phase for working or running a business – some construction sites are able to re-open under safe working practices. The amber phase for work includes trialling some personal services with appointments, such as hairdressers.

Scotland’s teaching unions are urging the Scottish government not to replicate the “cavalier attitude” of UK ministers in announcing an early re-opening of schools – a move which they claim has created fear among teachers and parents.

In a letter to the deputy first minister, John Swinney, the Teachers’ Panel of the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) calls for clarity on a potential partial return for pupils and teachers in August.

Des Morris of the SNCT and Educational Institute of Scotland warns against “a premature and enforced return to schools in June”, adding:

There is a strong argument to maintain a cautionary approach and to reinforce such by indicating schools will reopen after the summer break. Not only does that bring clarity to parents, pupils, and teachers, it provides a significant period to plan and prepare for the very real challenge of delivering a blended learning experience for Scotland’s pupils in session 2020/21.

Artwork praising the NHS on the steps of Cannon Street rail station in London. — Artwork praising the NHS on the steps of Cannon Street station in London. Photograph: Isabel Infantes/AFP via Getty Images

Ryanair has announced it has cut another 250 jobs across its offices in the UK, Ireland, Spain and Poland amid the collapse in demand for flights. The airline’s people director Darrell Hughes said:

While we expect to reopen our offices from 1 June, we will not require the same number of support team members in a year when we will carry less than 100 million passengers, against an original budget of 155 million.

These job losses were communicated to individual team members this week, and they will not be returning to work in our Dublin, Stansted, Madrid or Wroclaw offices when they reopen on 1 June.

We are continuing to meet our pilot and cabin crew unions across Europe to finalise up to 3,000 job cuts and 20% pay cuts as we return to approximately 40% of our normal flight schedules from July onwards.

British Transport Police will receive £1.5m of additional funding to boost the number of officers at railway stations in London, the transport secretary Grant Shapps announced. He said:

Extra boots on the ground working closely with station staff will help manage crowding, provide clear guidance and ensure passengers have the space to maintain social distancing.

However, the key message remains that people should only go to work if they cannot work from home, and should avoid public transport if possible to ease pressure on the network. Those who need to use it should avoid rush hour, maintain social distancing wherever possible and respect others.

Read the original article at The Guardian

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