Wales's first minister warns that people cannot "go back to the way we were living our lives and throw away all that hard work".
The new national restrictions include:
- Groups of up to four people from different households can meet in cafes, pubs and restaurants
- Shops, gyms, hairdressers and places of worship can reopen
- Supermarkets can sell non-essential items
- People can meet inside homes with members of one other household if they are part of a "bubble"
- 10pm curfew on alcohol sales will continue
- No restrictions on travel within Wales, but people will only be allowed to leave the country for reasons such as work
- Two-metre social distancing and wearing face masks in enclosed public places, including on public transport and taxis
- People should work from home whenever possible
- Up to 15 people can take part in an organised indoor activity and up to 30 in an organised activity outdoors, providing all social distancing, hand hygiene and other COVID-19 safety measures are followed
- All schools and year groups will resume
Image: There was anger in October after supermarkets taped off items deemed non-essential
First Minister Mark Drakeford said: "We all need to think about our own lives and what we can all do to keep our families safe.
We need to stop thinking about the maximum limit of rules and regulations."Coronavirus is a highly infectious virus - it thrives on contact between people. To keep each other safe
we need to reduce the number of people we have contact with and the amount of time we spend with them.
"
There will be a new set of national measures from today, which will follow up all the hard work and sacrifices which have been made during the firebreak.
"We cannot go back to the way we were living our lives and throw away all that hard work."
The government has said 156 more people have died within 28 days of testing positive for COVID-19, bringing the UK total to 49,044.
As of 9am on Sunday, there had been a further 20,572 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK, bringing the total number of cases in the UK to 1,192,013.
Comment: RT reports that Scotland's PM is threatening that there's no end in sight to their lockdown but, rather insidiously, that the possible fast tracking of the UK's scandal-ridden experimental vaccine is the 'best news they've had in weeks':
Scotland's First Minister has warned that any easing of current Covid restrictions is "highly unlikely," ahead of a government meeting on Tuesday to review the current measures.
Nicola Sturgeon told the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday that case numbers made it difficult for the government to consider an easing of Covid restrictions.
"Cases in Scotland are still too high for comfort"
Sturgeon claimed that there was some evidence that the measures taken, including the circuit breaker lockdown in October, and the new five-tier system, were starting to have an impact on the spread of the virus.
However, the first minister insisted that they needed to see a "significant and sustained reduction in cases" before making any decisions to reduce Covid restrictions.
© Pool via REUTERS / Andy BuchananFILE PHOTO: First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon, West Calder, Scotland, Britain.
The first minister also described the announcement that Pfizer's vaccine is 90 percent effective as the "best news in weeks."
Scotland's most populated areas are currently subjected to tier-three measures, which sees severe restrictions on hospitality venues and on socializing.
Following a firebreak lockdown in October and the introduction of the five-tiered system, Scotland is the least coronavirus-afflicted nation in the UK.
Overall infection rates in Scotland are significantly lower than in England, with 147.3 cases per 100,000 in the last seven days in Scotland compared to 243.2 cases per 100,000 in England.
RT also
reports on just a few of the inhumane and illogical restrictions of the lockdown that will no doubt have resounding effects on human life:
One in seven UK mothers barred from seeing sick babies due to Covid-19 restrictions, preemie charity finds
Some 14 percent of parents with sick and premature babies have been prevented from staying at their newborns' bedside by Covid-19 regulations adopted haphazardly by the National Health Service, according to a recent survey by premature babies' charity Bliss, cited by the Mail on Sunday.
© Reuters / Hannah McKay
Another couple was deprived of the chance to visit their daughter together by Royal Bolton Hospital, restrictions they say estranged them from their baby, who was born with jaundice and required oxygen. "When I brought Emily home after nine days, it felt like someone else's child because the restrictions stopped that bond," Carly Maclean told Bliss.
"It destroys a part of you."
During "normal" times, parents have 24-hour access to NICUs. Neonatal care staff and even national authorities like the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health have urged hospitals not to consider parents "visitors" with regard to social distancing and other coronavirus restrictions that are keeping them away from their children, but some individual hospitals have made their own rules.
Bliss concluded its report with a recommendation that the NHS issue a blanket order guaranteeing parents access to NICUs as a "matter of urgency." Its CEO Caroline Lee-Davey explained to the Mail that "our smallest and sickest babies need their parents at their side to give them the best chance of survival, even during a pandemic."
There's good reason for concern for both mothers and babies, as stillbirths nearly doubled between April and June in England while the country shut down "non-essential" care to fight the novel coronavirus. A report earlier this month in the Health Services Journal suggested the official line of "Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives" likely frightened ailing mothers away from seeking care - for themselves and their children.
The UK's lockdown resulted in a spike in excess deaths in private homes as sick people concerned about being a burden on the national system opted to stay home and suffer in private rather than seek treatment or diagnosis for maladies that may have been curable. Ambulance calls to suicides also soared during the first six weeks of lockdown as people were ill-equipped to deal with prolonged isolation.
The UK is far from the only country to adopt questionable treatment of new mothers under the guise of enforcing coronavirus restrictions, however. In France, women are being forced to "mask up" during labor, complicating delivery and even causing lasting psychological trauma according to a group campaigning to end the requirement. In the US, conflicting guidance from health authorities has led hospitals to separate mothers from their newborns and prohibit holding or breastfeeding of babies - even without evidence the virus can be transmitted through breastmilk. In Canada, Montreal's Sainte-Justine Hospital quarantined a new mother for a whopping 55 days, refusing to allow her to hold or nurse her child for the first two months of its life.
See also:
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Comment: RT reports that Scotland's PM is threatening that there's no end in sight to their lockdown but, rather insidiously, that the possible fast tracking of the UK's scandal-ridden experimental vaccine is the 'best news they've had in weeks': RT also reports on just a few of the inhumane and illogical restrictions of the lockdown that will no doubt have resounding effects on human life: See also:
- Everything You Think You Know About Coronavirus...
- First, Do No Harm: If Primary Healthcare Remains Shut Down, Toll on Elderly Will be Worse Than COVID-19
- Compelling Evidence That SARS-CoV-2 Was Man-Made
Also check out SOTT radio's: