First Minister Mark Drakeford has announced a number of changes to Wales' Covid rules from next week. From Monday, March 28 people will no longer have to wear masks in shops or on public transport, but they will still be needed in health and social care and businesses will still have to carry out risk assessments.
The latest review of coronavirus rules saw the Welsh Government stop short of relaxing all restrictions as it had said it hoped to do earlier this month. This is due to the BA.2 variant of coronavirus which is causing rising case numbers in Wales. If you want to know more about that you can see what we know so far here, and to keep up to date with the latest coronavirus news, subscribe to our daily briefing newsletter here.
Explaining the decision on Friday, Mr Drakeford said: "We had hoped, as you know, to have lifted all legal restrictions on Monday of next week, we're not we're not able to do that, in the light of the numbers that we're currently seeing. So we continue our step-by-step approach to dealing with the virus, lifting some of the legal restrictions on Monday, but having to keep others in place."
Read more: The only two Covid rules that remain in place in Wales
One element which many will be wondering about is that of the £500 Covid self-isolation payments, which are given to people who have to self-isolate due to Covid-19. WalesOnline asked the First Minister about this at the Welsh Government press conference on Friday and this is what he said.
What is happening to Covid self-isolation payments?
As part of the new rules you will be strongly advised to self-isolate if you get Covid, but from Monday this will no longer be the law. The Welsh Government announced on Thursday night that the £500 self-isolation payments will remain in place to those on lower incomes and parents until June.
However, the question remains over whether or not people on lower incomes will be able to follow any guidance to self-isolate after payments end and they are without financial support.
During Mr Drakeford's Friday press conference we asked: "You've said that self-isolation payments are going to end in June and it seems likely you will still be strongly advising people to self-isolate with Covid. After that point, will this not simply create a situation where the poorest in Wales will be given advice they can't financially afford to follow, meaning that if you're poor, you're even more likely to be sick?"
In response, Mr Drakeford said the Welsh Government would "wish to keep isolation payments available for longer" than June if needed but that this would depend heavily on the funding that was available. "In a way, it's the same answer using the money we have ourselves, we have been able to stretch self-isolation payments in Wales into the first quarter of the next financial year," he said. "If circumstances of coronavirus are such that people are having to self-isolate on the scale that we see at the moment, of course we would wish to keep those self-isolation payments available for longer.
"But while we wait for sort of final details of funding we will have for coronavirus purposes, we're not able to plan beyond that first quarter. And it may be we won't be able to do it, despite everything that you've said. And I recognise the pressure that that will create.
"But if a tap has been turned off across the whole of the United Kingdom, then the funding tap has been turned off here in Wales. And there is a limit in the end to how far we are able to go on doing the things that we regard as important and necessary while we've no help to do it."
We already know that self-isolation payments in England ended on February 24. So while the Welsh Government has expressed its intention to support those who most need financial support while they self-isolate, it remains to be seen whether they will be able to do so beyond June if the UK government does not provide it with the necessary funding.
