Everything Mark Drakeford said because he warns UK is within 'pre-peak stage of a third wave from the pandemic'
Mark Drakeford led a sombre press conference as Covid cases in Wales still rise.
Speaking after announcing there would be no substantial lifting of restrictions for a month the First Minister told the press conference that "the very first time this season, we view a sustained, week-on-week rise in the speed of coronavirus cases across Wales, as the new Delta variant takes hold".
Earlier today he spoke to WalesOnline about some bleak modelling for future years from the virus in Wales. Visit here to read that.
The may be the full address he gave at Friday's Welsh Government press conference:
"Prynhawn da and thank you for joining me today.
"Since February, every time I have spoken to you about coronavirus, I have been able to describe an improving picture across Wales.
"I have been able to let you know case numbers have been falling, positivity minute rates are down and, in recent months, the number of people in hospital continues to be reducing. However nowadays, sadly, that picture is different.
"For the first time this year we view a sustained week-on-week rise in the rate of coronavirus cases across Wales because the new Delta variant takes hold.
"Cases have fallen steadily since their peak in the winter to the really low levels we saw recently.
"Since the end of May cases have begun to rise once again across Wales. We've also seen a clear, crisp rise in cases among people under 25.
"When I spoke to you a couple weeks ago there have been fewer than 10 cases per 100,000 people in Wales. Today the rate is 23.6 and there are a couple of local authority areas with rates above 50 cases per 100,000 people. The positivity rate has more than doubled to two.4%.
"These increases are now being driven by the Delta variant. Fourteen days ago there have been 97 confirmed cases, most of which were associated with clusters in north and south east Wales. Yesterday there were only under 490 reported cases. The number will be higher today.
"The most recent information from Public Health Wales suggests eight out of 10 new cases of coronavirus in Wales are of the Delta variant. In north Wales now almost all new cases were the Delta variant.
"The variant is now in widespread circulation. A lot more than two-thirds of new cases come from community contacts.
"In the space of just a few weeks the Delta variant has entered Wales and quickly spread all through the country. There's sustained and accelerating transmission not only to north and south east Wales however in all parts of Wales.
"Once again we're facing a serious public health situation.
"Our scientific advisers believe the united kingdom is now within the pre-peak stage of a third wave of the pandemic.
"Wales may be two to three weeks behind what's happening in England as well as in Scotland, where tens of thousands of cases happen to be confirmed, there's widespread transmission and reports of increased hospital admissions.
"In the last week the very first Minister of Scotland and also the Pm have both paused their intends to relax coronavirus restrictions because of worry about the delta variant.
"Now I have to announce we are doing the same.
"We have reached this conclusion by carefully considering all the data available concerning the public health situation.
"We've checked out the latest modelling offered by Swansea University and also the advice from both our Technical Advisory Cell and from the UK Sage group.
"The increasing spread of the Delta variant and the development in coronavirus cases means we will not be going ahead with any new alert level one indoor relaxations now or any more relaxations towards the coronavirus regulations within the next three-week cycle.
"This four-week pause will allow us to focus on vaccinating much more individuals to help us to manage the outcome of this new wave of infections.
"We've the lowest coronavirus rates in the UK and also the highest vaccination rates.
"A four-week delay in relaxing restrictions may help to reduce the peak number of daily hospital admissions by almost half at any given time once the NHS is very busy supporting all our healthcare needs – not only treating coronavirus.
"Although we are delaying coming to a substantial changes to the regulations we make some smaller amendments to help make them easier to understand and apply to everyday life.
"From Monday the size of the venue and a risk assessment will determine the number of people can attend an indoor wedding or civil partnership reception or wake.
"We will begin the re-opening of residential outdoor education centres, beginning with primary school-age children.
"We will amend the regulations to create grassroots music and comedy venues into line using the rules for hospitality.
"We'll update the regulations so they reflect the most recent the evidence about how exactly businesses can take all reasonable measures to lessen risk on their premises and clarify the guidelines about two-metre distancing for groups of six people.
"Our programme of pilot events in theatre, sport, along with other sectors will continue to run during June and July, testing ways larger numbers of people can gather safely.
"We're issuing updated guidance today about hospital visiting including the use of testing to help people visit sick relatives.
"We're also publishing a statement by our scientific advisers concerning the utilization of face coverings in schools.
"There won't be any immediate change but we'll use schools, local authorities, and teaching unions to find ways for future years they don't need to be worn in each and every classroom every day.
"Over the next a month our focus is going to be on vaccinating as many people as possible to increase protection against this awful virus.
"Our fantastic vaccine programme provides nearly two along with a quarter million first doses – that's 88% of the adult population.
"We continue to have the very best vaccination rates in UK and some of the greatest in the world thanks to the hard work of all our vaccination teams.
"This week we reached our target of offering all eligible adults a vaccine 6 weeks early. But those offers can't help protect people unless everyone appears for their appointments.
"Over the next four weeks we will deploy more than half millions of doses to help prevent a brand new wave of significant illness. Most of these is going to be second doses.
"We are speeding up that second dose programme to make sure people get the full protection the vaccine offers.
"Please come toward occupy your invitation for a vaccine and complete the full two-dose course.
"We're putting 500,000 vaccines into the programme over the next a month – the only way we will deliver those is if 500,000 people come toward be vaccinated.
"The greater people who are fully vaccinated the better our odds are of protecting ourselves and preventing the current situation from going backwards whenever we may need tighter restrictions to control increasing hospitalisations.
"Because, as the development in coronavirus cases in Wales has become inevitable, the levels of injury associated with it aren't.
"This all depends on the actions we take together including tallying to both doses of the vaccine.
"Diolch o galon i chi gyd. I will now take questions from journalists.
"Due to the rapidly-changing situation in Wales the minister and deputy chief medical officer can be used on Monday and I is going to be back on Friday to update you concerning the latest situation and also to answer questions."
