Supermarket staff in Wales have been pictured blocking off ‘non-essential’ aisles as the nation is plunged into a 17-day ‘firebreak’ lockdown.
Shops are not allowed to sell things such as clothing and hardware after the country was placed under new restrictions at 6pm today.
Witnesses claimed they had ‘never seen anything like it’ as workers at Tesco and Sainsbury’s set the devolved Government’s plan into action.
Sainsbuy’s said staff had been working ‘around the clock’ to put changes in place, while Waitrose said it was reviewing government guidance. Meanwhile, Asda complained bosses had been given ‘very little time’ to implement the new restrictions.
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Pubs and restaurants, beauty salons, museums and galleries, garden centres and libraries, among other businesses, were also pictured closing this afternoon in line with the new circuit breaker.
People living in Wales can leave home for only a limited number of reasons including to buy food and medication, provide care, exercise or to work if they cannot do so from home.
Police checkpoints have been set up on a key section of the border with England, with officers telling drivers to turn around ‘if they are not satisfied’ with the explanation for their journey.
First Minister Mark Drakeford has defended his decision to allow supermarkets to only sell essential goods, saying it is ‘a simple matter of fair play’.
He said: ‘We are requiring many hundreds of small businesses to close on the high street right across Wales. We cannot do that and then allow supermarkets to sell goods that those people are unable to sell.
‘And we are looking to minimise the amount of time that people spend out of their homes during this two-week period. This is not the time to be browsing around supermarkets looking for non-essential goods.’
Mr Drakford has warned hundreds more will die from coronavirus across Wales ‘unless we act now to bring this deadly disease under control’.
The Welsh leader said the firebreak is about ‘saving lives, not Christmas’, as millions of families remain concerned about the upcoming festive period.
He told the Welsh Government’s Covid-19 press briefing: ‘Our ambition is we will not need to have this level of restriction again in Wales before Christmas.
‘I want shops to be able to trade. I want people to be able to prepare. I want to offer people some hope that, provided we all do the right things, then we will still be able to enjoy a version of the holiday that we would have otherwise enjoyed.’
When asked if he envisaged people from outside Wales being prevented from entering the country for Christmas, Mr Drakeford said it was ‘impossible to predict’ how Wales’s attempts to lower the prevalence of the virus ‘will mesh in with the difficulties faced elsewhere in the United Kingdom’.
He added that discussions were under way to decide which measures will be used to tackle coronavirus after the firebreak period, which included the reopening of businesses and travel arrangements.
The first minister has blamed a decade of austerity imposed by the UK Government for leaving Wales’s health service at risk of being overwhelmed by rising numbers of people infected with Covid-19.
He said: ‘The health service in Wales has suffered from a decade of austerity alongside every other public service that we face.
‘And right across the UK, I think it can be argued that we have been less well prepared for coronavirus than we would have been had we not seen that 10 long years of underinvestment in our public services by a UK Government determined to tell us that that money couldn’t be found.
‘We know now that wasn’t the case because when we needed to find money during this pandemic we’ve been able to find it and we could have found it then as well.’
The Welsh lockdown comes as Nicola Sturgeon reveals Scotland’s new five-tier system for tackling coronavirus.
Boris Johnson is under pressure to implement a circuit breaker across England, but has insisted local action is the best way forward.
Tier three restrictions begin in Sheffield, Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster just after midnight on Saturday.
Warrington is also set for tier three lockdown after council leaders agreed a £4.2 million deal with the Government.
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