Update on the situation in Wales

The Welsh Government yesterday published Coronavirus Control Plan: Alert Levels in Wales – A guide to restrictions. The document should be read in full, but the most pressing information for places of worship and faith communities can be found in the Appendix at the end where the restrictions are listed for each of four levels. We are currently at Level 3.  These tables show that worship, weddings and funerals and child care can continue in all of the four levels – even Level 4, which is similar to a lockdown – subject to safety measures and other restrictions. In Level 4, community activities will be limited to “essential” services, as in previous lockdowns.

The purpose of this document is to give greater certainty regarding the nature of restrictions when they are announced. At times, different parts of Wales may be at different levels. In practice, the legal regulations will be published each time a change of level is required, and there could be detailed changes within those regulations which are not prefigured in this document. Cytûn will continue to keep a close eye on the regulations as they are published.

The regulations for the Christmas period (December 23-27) and the period following have not yet been published. Cytûn will draw members’ attention to them when they are available, and its website will be updated accordingly.

The Welsh Government continues to remind everyone that the health situation in Wales is currently very serious and that all risk assessments for any proposed activity should begin by asking the question, Given the inherent risks involved do I need to engage in this activity at all? Are there safer alternatives such as broadcast?

[With thanks to the Revd Gethin Rhys, Policy Officer at Cytûn, from whom this has been plagiarised, as usual.]

But will the UK rules change?

This afternoon, The Guardian reported that Michael Gove, is to meet representatives from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to discuss the UK-wide approach agreed a fortnight ago which would allow three households to meet indoors over five days of the Christmas period. The original announcement has been greeted with widespread criticism: in a joint editorial criticising the proposed UK-wide Christmas rules, the editors of the Health Service Journal and the British Medical Journal wrote: “We believe the government is about to blunder into another major error that will cost many lives. If our political leaders fail to take swift and decisive action, they can no longer claim to be ‘protecting the NHS’.”