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Wales will go into lockdown at midnight tonight amid soaring COVID-19 rates

Christmas plans are reduced to Christmas Day instead of the 5 day period previously promised


First Minister, Mark Drakeford, has announced that Wales will go into lockdown at midnight tonight.

It comes after urgent talks with ministers over a new strain of the virus.

All festive plans, apart from Christmas Day, have now been cancelled. Previously, rules were meant to be relaxed from 23 to 28 December so that people could spend the holidays with their loved ones.

The new measures will effect millions of people, with Mark Drakeford saying: “while we all want to avoid further disruption to businesses and plans for Christmas, our overriding duty is to protect lives here in Wales.”

The changes that have recently been announced were thought to come into affect on 28th of December. However, these have been brought forward and will happen at midnight tonight.

People are being told to ‘stay home’ to save lives, with all but essential shops told to close. The lockdown means that all of Wales will be placed into Tier 4, the highest level of lockdown.

Mark Drakeford said: “we know that 2021 will be a different and better year”, seemingly in an effort to de-escalate the negative response.

However, some Twitter users have started to express distrust in the First Minster’s leadership, writing:

Mark Drakeford completed his statemen by emphasising that “our economy will recover. Christmas will come again.”

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