Welsh Government should drop all Covid restrictions on restaurants, cafes and pubs says hospitality group

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Welsh Government should drop all Covid restrictions on pubs, restaurants and cafes in Wales says a hospitality group.

In England, UK Government is set to get rid of capacity limits, social distancing, and compulsory mask wearing in venues on July 19.

It comes despite a major spike in Covid cases due to the more transmissible Delta variant which has seen the infection rate rise to over 260 per 100,000 in England, and 134 per 100K in Wales.

But the success of the vaccine rollout has meant the link between cases and serious illness or death has been weakened with hospitalisations not rising at the rate of last autumn. There are also hopes that the summer break will stem the spread of the virus among school age children.

UKHospitality Cymru believes Welsh Government should follow the UK Government by lifting the rules in Wales to “manage” the influx of tourists from England over the summer.

They warn workers will be on the receiving end of “disappointment or annoyance” by those left confused by the different rules in the two nations.

UKHC Executive Director David Chapman said: “Next week’s Welsh Government review is a chance to lift remaining restrictions and help businesses in Wales to manage the huge influx of summer visitors. Let’s keep it simple: open up, stay savvy, stay safe.

“On July 19 we’re expecting England to fully open up and from that moment we need to make sure visitors to Wales are welcomed with a set of simple directions about how to stay safe and enjoy their holiday while they are here.

“Welsh Government Ministers are suggesting we have to now learn to live with the virus; it’s time to make it simple and easy for those looking to take their first restriction-free break in eighteen months.

“We don’t want hospitality workers to be at the receiving end of visitor confusion, disappointment or annoyance about what can or can’t be done; let’s make it as straightforward as possible.

“Open up now, stay savvy and stay safe. They should be the watchwords of the new normal of living with Covid-19 in Wales in a post-vaccine environment.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has acknowledged that lifting the restrictions will drive surging coronavirus cases higher but that the UK had to “learn to live with this virus”

The approach in England has attracted criticism from some scientists and doctors.

Mike Ryan, head of emergencies at the World Health Organisation, said letting people get infected with Covid-19 earlier rather than later was “epidemiological stupidity”.

Welsh Government will decide next week on its next steps in the pandemic.

Wales Health Minister Eluned Morgan said: “We are still in a very difficult situation because the case numbers are increasing exponentially still in Wales. There remains a vulnerability for those people who haven’t been vaccinated.

“However, we also have to understand that there are other harms that we need to consider and, in particular, the mental health situation, the economic situation, the social situations that people find themselves in.

“We’ll be considering those in the next few days. We need to understand that we are going to learn to live with this illness, and we are going to have to adapt as a society to a situation where we will be exposed to an extent to this new variant and to coronavirus more generally.”