Welsh hospitality to close at 6pm on Christmas day

Hospitality businesses in Wales will have to close at 6pm on Christmas Day, with the country going into lockdown four days later, First Minister Mark Drakeford has announced.

Non-essential shops and close-contact services will also close, and tighter lockdown restrictions for staying at home will come into force on 28 December.

Though pubs and restaurants are already under strict restrictions – prohibited from selling alcohol and subject to a 10pm curfew – Drakeford said ministers were “anxious not to face [the] industry with additional difficulties at this point.”

“There’s more than one form of harm from coronavirus,” he continued. “We know that many people who live alone arrange their Christmas by booking a meal on Christmas Day, so that they can be in the company of other people.

“I wanted to be able to honour that so that those people do not face an even bleaker Christmas, even more alone and they otherwise would be with all the other harms that come from that.

“Allowing hospitality to continue to 6pm on Christmas Day protects the plans that people have made, particularly those who are lonely and isolated, and allows the industry itself to come to an orderly close.”

Despite an agreement between UK nations to allow three households to mix between 23 and 27 December, Drakeford also said the “clear message” in Wales was that “only two households should meet” over Christmas, before the country moves from level 3 to level 4 lockdown the following Monday.

The lockdown has no end date and will be reviewed every three weeks.