Welsh ‘firebreak’ lockdown’ designed to be ‘short but very sharp,’ first minister says

First minister Mark Drakeford has insisted that the "firebreak" lockdown in Wales will end on 9 November and is deliberately designed to be "short but very sharp".

He told BBC Breakfast that the effects of the lockdown, which begins at 6pm on Friday, will not be seen within the two-week period but after it.

He said the Welsh government will use metrics such as the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 each day, the positivity rate, and the number of people being admitted to hospital to establish how successful it has been.

"We have a series of things that we will test to see the impact of this fortnight of significant closure of people's personal and business lives in Wales in order to make sure that we are able to move into the rest of the autumn and the winter in a position where our NHS is not threatened with being overwhelmed," Mr Drakeford said.

He said the Welsh Government decided to go for the "shortest possible" lockdown partly to reduce the impact on people's mental health.

"It is a very difficult time indeed and it's why, in the end, we decided to go for the shortest possible period of a firebreak - a two-week period," he told BBC Breakfast.

"But if you're doing it short, you've got to do it deep. There's a trade-off there.

"We could have gone for a longer period with slightly fewer restrictions but, in the end, the advice to us - partly because of the impact on people's mental health - was that if you could keep this period of time as short as you could, that would help to mitigate that impact."

Under the "firebreak" lockdown, single adult households are able to form an alliance with one other household to address the feelings of "loneliness and isolation", Mr Drakeford added.

Daily coronavirus cases in UK

This graph, from Statista, shows how the number of daily coronavirus cases in the UK has changed since the start of the pandemic.

UK well placed to begin human challenge trials, vaccine researcher says

Peter Openshaw, from Imperial College London, said the UK is well placed to begin human challenge trials.

Professor Openshaw, who is co-investigator of the project which will see humans exposed to Covid-19 in controlled settings, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We are moving into this very cautiously, we never undertake these challenge studies lightly but we do have unique experience in the UK and at Imperial."

During the initial phase, researchers will seek to establish the lowest possible safe dose, he said. Volunteers would be infected via the nose and then monitored "very carefully".

"(These studies) are enormously informative because we can do such very, very careful monitoring under controlled conditions," he added.

"The aim of these studies is not to make people ill, but to get the virus to replicate in the nose.

"We think that, by taking every precaution, we can really limit the infection and then we should be able to do it quite safely given the vast amount of experience we have in this field."

Hartlepool leader tells anyone suggesting town should be placed in tier 3 to ‘sod off’

The leader of Hartlepool Borough Council has told anyone suggesting the town should be placed in tier 3 to “sod off”.

Shane Moore tweeted yesterday evening: "Apparently it was announced in the House of Commons earlier that there were talks happening in relation to #Hartlepool & wider #TeesValley going into tier 3.

"This is untrue.

"No talks with us since update on Friday & if anyone suggests it to me this week they'll be told to sod off."

Vaccine ‘unlikely’ to completely stop spread of virus, says chief government scientist

It is "unlikely" that a coronavirus vaccine will be able to completely stop the spread of infection, the government's chief scientific advisor has warned, adding that the disease may well become endemic in the global population – much like influenza.

Sir Patrick Vallance told a select committee on national security that the UK government would likely need to manage Covid-19 on a year-by-year basis in the same way as flu.

My colleague Samuel Lovett has more details:

Wales prepares to enter two-week ‘firebreak’ lockdown

Wales is preparing to enter a two-week “firebreak” lockdown, which will protect the NHS from being overwhelmed by a resurgence of coronavirus cases and save lives, the first minister has said.

Mark Drakeford appealed to the nation to "come together" and "play our part in a common endeavour" during the latest round of measures to come into force from 6pm Friday.

The restrictions, which will require people to stay at home and non-essential businesses like pubs and shops to be closed, will last until 9 November.

The "sharp and deep" lockdown will be brought in to coincide with the school half-term.

The decision follows a report from the Welsh Government's Tactical Advisory Group (TAG), which said a lockdown would "massively reduce" Covid-19 transmission in Wales and prevent hundreds of deaths.

Mr Burnham said he will suggest to other local leaders that they ask for a "fair figure" of funding support from the government to accompany any tier 3 restrictions.

Speaking to Sky News, he claimed leaders had "never had a figure" of potential additional support from government.

He said: "I'm going to consult the Greater Manchester leaders this morning and I would propose to those leaders that we write to the government this morning setting out what we think is a fair figure.

"We need full flexibility over that funding so we can support the people who we believe will need to be supported through everything that tier 3 lockdown will mean."

Burnham will not ‘break the law’ if government puts Greater Manchester into tier 3

Mr Burnham said he would not "break the law" if the government put the region into tier 3 coronavirus measures.

Appearing on Sky News, he was asked what he would do if further restrictions were imposed.

Mr Burnham said: "Of course we wouldn't break the law. We've never said that we would.

"We would obviously have to accept that decision, in the end it's the government's prerogative.

"But I would say to them at this point are they sure that that is a wise thing to do?"

He said he wanted to ensure the lowest-paid people in the region were supported if Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions were brought in.

"If we go into a lockdown where we don't support people who are in the lowest-paid professions we will have a mental health crisis on top of a pandemic."

He added: "Tier 3 lockdowns affect the lowest-paid people in society, people who work in pubs, people who drive taxis, people who work on the doors in pubs.

"These are the people that Westminster politicians traditionally ignore.

"We are not going to do that here. If you're going to impose a lockdown here, it's going to cause certain harm ... to all of the people that I've mentioned.

"That is why we have stood firm, because we don't believe we can consign our residents to hardship in that way."

Mr Burnham said he thought shielding of eldery and vulnerable people in Greater Manchester needed to be "looked at seriously" and suggested it was "part of the solution".

"I have to say I am worried genuinely about the tier 3 policy as it is developing because we have had briefings from very senior figures - the deputy chief medical officer - who said to us that for Tier 3 to have a chance you have to close a lot of things.

"The trouble with the way that the government are pursuing this at the moment is that they are not funding local areas to support people through the closure of lots of things within their community, and that is a major flaw at the heart of this tier 3 strategy as it develops."

Government made ‘provocative move’ with Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham says

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has said it was "provocative" of the government to tell local leaders they have until midday on Tuesday to agree to tier 3 restrictions or face unilateral government action.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The late-night ultimatum briefed to the media was a slightly provocative move ... but I'm going to try to be positive and respond, and see if we can find a way forward."

Mr Burnham continued: "The letter is odd in that it is both an ultimatum but it references potential additional support that could be given to us.

"The thing is we've never been given a figure for that additional support.

"What I'll be proposing to the Greater Manchester leaders when we meet this morning, quite early, is that we write to the government setting out what we think a fair figure is for that support, given we've been under restrictions for three months and that has taken a real toll on people and businesses here.

"The second thing we would need is full flexibility to support the people that we think are going to need to be supported in a tier 3 lockdown."