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- Wales will go into national coronavirus lockdown from Friday.
- First Minister Mark Drakeford said pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops will close.
- Primary schools will return after half term but only younger years in secondary schools will be allowed to return.
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Wales will go into a national coronavirus lockdown from Friday with pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops closed for two weeks.
The First Minister Mark Drakeford announced the news on Monday following a surge in coronavirus infections across the country.
The so-called “fire-break” lockdown will start at 6 pm on Friday 23 October and end on Monday 9 November.
“This is the moment to come together; to play our part in a common endeavour to protect the NHS and save lives. This will not be easy, but we will do it together,” Drakeford said.
“It is with a heavy heart that I once again ask everyone to stay at home and businesses to shut.
“We are all tired of coronavirus and the many rules and regulations we all have to live with. We all want to see an end to this pandemic and our lives returned to us. Unfortunately, we do not yet have a vaccine, which will allow us to do that.
“This fire-break is our best chance of regaining control of the virus and avoiding a much-longer – and damaging – national lockdown. We have a small window of opportunity to act.”
All indoors and outdoor gatherings with people not in a single household will be banned, he said.
Primary schools will re-open after the one week half term holiday, due to start on Friday. However, only the first two years of secondary school children will return at that point.
Wales follows Northern Ireland in announcing the measures, to halt the second wave of the coronavirus taking hold across the UK.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has so-far resisted calls for a nationwide lockdown, insisting that localised restrictions must be tried first.
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