 Prynu'r dda, achor i soeg yn hadledd y wasg. Gai ddechrau gai ddangos map i chi o coronavirus ar dros Cymru. A wna start today by showing you this map of coronavirus across Wales. The lighter areas show where the 7-day incidence rate is the lowest in Pembrokeshire, in Ceredigion, and in Powys. The darker the area, the higher the rate. In Murthitidville, the 7-day incidence rate is 402.8 cases per 100,000 people, the highest in Wales. The Wales-wide 7-day incidence rate is just over 200 cases per 100,000 people. Yesterday, Public Health Wales confirmed a further 1,207 cases of coronavirus. This reflects numbers from positive tests. The real number will be much higher. This is the highest daily number recorded during the pandemic. We continue to see a steady rise in the number of people admitted to hospital with coronavirus symptoms. Yesterday, Public Health Wales recorded 7 more deaths. Today, I'm sorry to say that it will confirm a further 37 deaths. My thoughts are with the families and friends who are mourning the loss of a loved one at this time. These figures underline why we need this firebreak to break the cycle of transmission and bring the virus under control. This firebreak is a short, sharp shock to the virus. We've designed it to be as short as possible, but that means the measures we are taking have to be deep to be effective. We're asking everyone to weather some short-term pain over this two-week period for us to have a maximum possible long-term gain. The firebreak is going to end on November 9. When we come out of this, our shops will reopen, people will go back to work, churches and places of worship will resume services, bars and restaurants will serve customers and people will be able to exercise and train in gyms. We will also have a new set of national rules to help us live with coronavirus and keep the virus under control. I'll say a bit more about that in a moment. This short and targeted firebreak in Wales is different to the action being taken in other parts of the United Kingdom, even though we're all facing high levels of coronavirus and very serious situations. In some parts of the country, there is no end date for these strict lockdown restrictions. In England, large parts of the north and the midlands are under tier 3 restrictions. More areas are being added to tier 3 every day. There is no end date to these restrictions and the UK government's own scientific advisers have said these will not be enough to bring coronavirus under control. In Scotland, a temporary lockdown has been in place in the central belt area since October 9. It's been extended once already by a week until the 2nd of November. The whole of Northern Ireland is currently subject to strict restrictions from October 16 until November 13. These include the closure of hospitality, cultural and leisure businesses and an 8pm curfew on the sale of alcohol. Schools have also been closed for an extended half term. In the Republic of Ireland, the whole country must stay at home. There are no indoor gatherings other than small numbers at funerals and weddings. Only essential retailers permitted and pubs and bars are closed. The Tonnister, Llywodraeth Cymru, has said it could last for six weeks. In Wales, businesses need support during the fire break and today we are opening the extended economic resilience fund to all those businesses across Wales which have had to close during this two-week period. We're making £300 million available today to support businesses in Wales in addition to the wage support schemes from the UK government. Registration and applications will be via the Business Wales website and a range of support is available. Payments of £1,000 for all businesses eligible for small business rates relief, occupying a property with a rateable value of £12,000 or less. Payments of up to £5,000 for retail hospitality and leisure businesses that are required to close and with a rateable value of between £12,000 and £50,000. Discretionary top-up grants for businesses closed by the fire break lockdown and those affected by restrictions before the start of the lockdown. We've made an extra £10 million available to support jobs and people during the fire break. This will add £5 million to the discretionary fund to support businesses retain workers at risk of falling through the gaps in support and it will support the discretionary assistance fund which provides grant to people in urgent need. This has been an incredibly difficult year for businesses in Wales and for the people that they employ. A great many are desperately worried about what the future and the immediate and longer term future holds. We understand those anxieties and those concerns and we share your ambitions to keep your businesses running and your employees in jobs. We are grateful to you for everything you have done this year for working with us, for adapting to the rules and regulations and making the physical changes to your businesses to keep people safe. We all want to see an end to this pandemic but without an effective vaccine we have to find a way of bringing and keeping the virus under control. This week we are working on new national measures, regulations, guidance and advice which will come into force when the fire break ends on November 9 to help keep us all safe. We will discuss these ideas over the next few days with local authorities, with the police, with the people and organisations which need to make the rules work to make sure they are right for Wales. This is a fire break to save lives. It's a fire break to make sure our NHS can carry on providing high quality care for people with coronavirus and for people with other illnesses and injuries this winter. We cannot bring coronavirus under control without your help. We need everyone to work together during this two week period. We know this is hard and we are asking a huge amount from everyone after a very long and difficult year. But the fire break will end on November 9 and together we will keep Wales safe. Diolch yn fawr i chi gyd. I'll take questions from journalists and we will broadcast all the answers live on our social media channels. Idechre, Cymru'n Davies, BBC Wales. Diolch, and I'd be grateful if you could respond to these questions in both Welsh and English, please. You mentioned that 37 further deaths due to be confirmed this afternoon up from seven yesterday. How do you account for that jump? Well, Cymru, just to repeat the fact that our thoughts are with the loved ones of each of those individuals that are being referred to today. There is a lag, isn't there, between the point at which people are infected, the point at which they are admitted to hospital and then the mortality that we have seen. So we anticipate it is a project of that time lag. What it tells us is that a fire break is absolutely essential and it tells us that a deep fire break of the sort that the Welsh Government is asking people in Wales to observe is the right response in order to protect people's lives and to protect the NHS in its capacity to keep us all safe. Mae'r ffigurau ni wedi gweld hefyd a gai jyst y teg i'r ffaith bwn ni yn cadw yn yn cof, hŷl yn y golyion sy'n cael ei ffaithio gan hynny, yndangos yn fwynydd hefyd y lag yn yr amser drwy'n cyfnod pan mae rhywun i cael ei heintio, y cyfnod maen nhw'n rispyty, a'r cyfnod pan yn anffodus mewn cofli bywydau. Felly mae'n debyg mae'n dynas i ddarwaith fan hyn. Yr hyn mae yndangos i ni yw pa mor ddyfrifol i'w'r sefylfa sydd ganddon ni, a pa mor bwysig felly i'w'r cyfnod clwbyr yma yn yn gallu ni i helpu arbed bywydau ac i helpu'r gwasanaeth i eich genedlaethol i'n cadw ni gyd yn ddiogel. Diolch. Giffen how serious the situation currently is and how the numbers are rising, is it still appropriate to look at easing restrictions in a couple of weeks time? And on that issue of relaxing the rules you spoke about a new set of national rules coming into force, are you able to give people an idea what that will mean in terms of travelling and also meeting up with friends and family after this fire break ends? Well, we have said, Kimlyn, from the beginning that we don't expect to see the impact of the fire break immediately. It's likely to be perhaps two or three weeks even after the end of the fire break before its impact starts to be felt in terms of transmission, hospital admissions and the sorts of figures around loss of life that we've seen today. So we don't expect, even on the 9th of November, to have a picture which demonstrates on that day that the figures are reducing. But we hope to see that in a couple of weeks or two or three weeks after that. And it's important to give people the certainty of that date, which I'm very happy to repeat again here today. On the question of the measures which come into effect after the 9th, those are still being discussed during this week, the sorts of measures which under review are measures in relation to contact with other people, of course, measures around travel and the sorts of restrictions that we've been facing so far. It's important that, as those ideas are being discussed, that we're also able to speak to our stakeholders and other partners in different aspects of government and other sectors in Wales so that we can test whether those ideas are the rights ideas for Wales and that process is underway at the moment. We can expect to hear from the First Minister, I think, in the coming days with a clearer picture of what lies ahead following those discussions and following those decisions to take effect from the 9th of November. O ran effeth y ffigurau ni'n gweld heddi. Dyn ni ddim wedi dweud, dyn ni ddim yn credu beth ym boseb gweld impact y cyfnod clwr bir yn syth ar y nawfed o dachwedd. Mae'n dybagol iawn bod ni'n mynd i'n falch falle na byddwn ni'n gweld yr impact am bethefnos, tarwthnos, ar ôl diwedd y cyfnod clwr. Mae'n boseb iddyn nhw i bydd y ffigurau yn cylliddi o hed ar y nawfed, ond y nawfed bydd diwedd y cyfnod clwr bir hwn. O ran yr rheoliadau newydd, yn ystod yr ysgynos hon, mae trafodaethau wedi bod yn digwydd. Yn nhw'n parhau i ddigwydd, ynglyn â misirau yn ymnoedd a teithio, yn ymnoedd gyda contact rhwng pobl a'r mathau o'i strategau therys i wedi bod o'n blaenau i'n y cyfnod dweud ar hwn. Mae trafodaethau'n digwydd gyda'r hanfaeliad erill, llwod rethleol a gerill, bydd yn gyfrifol am roi'r rheoliad yma ar waith, ar lard gwlad, ac felly ar ôl hynny, a pan fydd penderfyniad yw wedi cymryd bydd datganiad pysach wrth y prif wedi wneud o'r gweithio. Robosbwn from ITV Wales. As the government's top lawyer, will you tell the people of Wales now when they can buy a non-essential item, when they can't buy a non-essential item, what an exceptional circumstance is, and who defines that? Could you answer that clearly and concisely, please? Thank you, Rob, for that question. As you will know, we published regulations and guidance at the end of last week, which described the restrictions in relation to non-essential and non-essential retail in Wales. We have done that against the backdrop of the need to take exceptional measures to protect people in Wales. We've seen again today the increase in the number of people losing their lives. On the weekend, I was talking, another minister was talking, about having lost 61 people in the course of a week. Today, Public Health Wales will be announcing the loss of 37 people in one day. And therefore, that is the context for these exceptional measures. We have been working with the supermarkets in order to provide further clarification to when items are essential or when they're not essential. You will have seen that examples of that have been provided and put in the public domain yesterday. It is our analysis. They were permitted by the regulations, but it's obviously helpful to give some reassurance through those examples. And there are discussions and ideas being exchanged about how we can make sure, on the shop floor, if you like, that members of the public are able to purchase items which for them may be essential, even if they're in non-essential categories otherwise, and to do that in a way which is respectful of consumers and, importantly, as well respectful of shop workers in the various stores affected. I asked you to define what an exceptional circumstance was. I'm not sure I heard that. Let me ask you a different question. If someone does buy a non-essential item, who is legally responsible for that? Is it the shopper? Is it the retailer? Or is it the shop assistant who may have aided in the purchase of that non-essential item? Well, the way the regulations work in Wales and the way they have worked in other parts of the UK, as I understand it, is that there is an obligation on individuals to leave the home only to purchase things which are essential. So that is an obligation on each of us as an individual. The starting point is to stay at home, and if we're going to go shopping, it's to buy things which are essential only rather than things which are non-essential. But as well as that personal responsibility on each of us, we have also seen, as has been the case in other parts of the UK and overseas, that retail, which is non-essential, then is closed for this period, just in the same way that bars and restaurants have been closed and other facilities have been closed. So it's a responsibility on the individual not to leave the house to buy something which isn't essential and a responsibility in the retailer not to sell things which are non-essential. Dan Bevan from LBC. Thank you, Council General. Good afternoon. I'm not sure if you're aware of a video that has been circulating on social media over the weekend of a church in Cardiff where police intervened and disbanded a service that was taking place. Now, I've spoken with the pastor who was present at the time. He tells me that the firebreak, stopping religious services taking place, is infringing on his human rights, as Rob alluded to as the government's top lawyer. I wonder what your response is to that. Well, Dan, thank you for raising this important question just to acknowledge at the start that by virtue of us living through these particularly challenging times, the sorts of restrictions which we are having to bring in here in Wales and other parts of the UK are bringing in obviously do represent significant restrictions on people's rights. That's part of the balance which is needed to be assessed each time regulations are brought in, and we do that and we do it rigorously because of our commitment to rights as a government. I will say in relation to the incident that you are describing there, I do recognise absolutely how hard it is for individuals who want to practice our faith and want to do that in a setting which is enables us to worship together, and many faith leaders and faith settings in a broad sense have been very creative and innovative in supporting worshippers in a way to do that, but I also have to be very clear that the restrictions are in place for a very good reason, and we are very clear that they must be complied with. They are there to protect people. That is the purpose of having these regulations, is to protect people's health, protect people's lives and prevent transmission of the virus, and so we have for this two-week period a set of exceptional restrictions which will impact on church services, unfortunately, and I think that we recognise as well incidentally. I heard some observations from individuals in the congregation concerned about isolation and their sense of coming together being a support for them, and we absolutely recognise as a government the impact on people in relation to isolation and mental health. We have provisions in place to enable people to provide compassionate care to others in that type of situation, but the basic rule restricting our congregation together for the next two weeks must remain in place, and I'm afraid it must be observed. Thank you, and of course, as the Brexit transition minister, I also want to do ask how you feel the assessment of a potential melody of Brexit, which is, of course, looking ever more likely as days go by now, and also the added... We might come back to you, Dan, for that second question, because we've lost you temporarily. I'll move on if I may to mark Hutchings at Five Live. Yes, thanks very much. The leader of Rhondda Kennan Tav Council treated a short time ago that there's been a huge increase in the number of cases there. I wonder if you can shed any light on that. And in tandem with the 37 deaths you reported, it suggests we're only now learning about the situation, obviously with the lag that we went into this lockdown. Could it suggest that this short, sharp shot may turn out to have been too short? Well, I can't, for the time being, elaborate on the figures specific to RCT, Mark, but those figures will be published shortly, which I hope will answer your question in relation to that. We talked about the time lag this morning, haven't we? The picture has been moving in this direction for some time as we know, which is why the government is acting. The two options in practical reality, which face the government in putting together these regulations, are a deep set of regulations for a period of two weeks, or effectively a longer timeframe. And we felt that there is a balance of harms that we have to seek to acknowledge in this exercise. There is the impact, the direct impact of coronavirus, the impact on other parts of the NHS, from dealing with coronavirus, and the impact on individuals of prolonged periods of lockdown. And in looking at all those harms together, no judgment which the government makes in any part of the world. In fact, in this kind of setting can be without harm, unfortunately. But the judgment of the government here on advice from the CMO and the scientific officers was that a deep firebreak for a two-week period was the best way to reflect that competing set of priorities. And in normal times, many families have to make compromises over their plans for Christmas. Is it now incumbent on all four UK governments, including your own, to resist any temptation to do something of your own and agree a joint UK plan for Christmas? Well, on the broader point, Mark, that you make, we have always sought wherever possible to work on a four nations basis throughout this pandemic. Obviously, that isn't always possible, it isn't always appropriate, but that is our starting point for discussions around this. In terms of what Christmas might look like, as you have heard the First Minister say, he wants the best available version of Christmas consistent with people keeping people safe. The measures which will be announced for the period after the 9th of November will give us a new set of regulations and guidelines to work to. But I think in whatever scenario we face as we approach Christmas, I think we all need to look as well at how we spend our time in the weeks before, so speaking personally, I'll be thinking about how I can manage contact with others in a way which puts me in the best possible place, if you like, to take whatever available opportunities there are at Christmas, perhaps to spend time with others then. But we'll need to see what the landscape looks like in the next few weeks. The first step is to see the new regulations and new guidance which will be in place from the 9th of November. Steve Bagnell from The Daily Post, please. Thank you, Minister. There was an incident this week of a man from Rotherham who was caught by North Wales Police because he wanted to climb snow on his own. How successful has the ban on people from high-instant areas in other parts of the UK coming to Wales being? Is there evidence there is having broadly the desired effect or are there still problems with people coming who shouldn't? Well, you know, there are enforcement powers which enable these regulations to be implemented on the ground. At each point throughout the pandemic and the strict regulations we've had at various different points, the police have played, I think, a very constructive role in seeking to engage with the public, whether they're Welsh residents or people from other parts of the UK or, indeed, overseas. You know, when people are in Wales, we are all subject to Welsh law. And the police have played an exceptional role, I would say, in helping to educate and take people on a journey, if you like. The first step isn't the step of enforcement. And I think, you know, the broad picture has been of a desire on people's part to comply. Obviously that hasn't been universal and we've seen the consequences of that. But people, generally speaking, have wanted to be able to comply. And I think that the police have played a very positive and successful part in making sure that happens across the board. Thank you, Minister. Given the latest figures, is the second wave now looking like it? It's going to be worse than the first. Well, we don't yet know precisely how this will turn out. Plainly, we are seeing higher numbers, but we're also testing more people. I think the key indicator is in relation to hospital admissions and the occupancy of ICU beds and so on, because that is the way that that is experienced as part of our health service, if you like, the people in the most need of support to deal with the impact of coronavirus. And we already know we have figures of over 1,100 beds occupied by COVID patients in the NHS. Those figures are very significant. And we already know the impact on our ICU capacity and different parts of the NHS. Provision is being made for surging that capacity. But that can only happen at the expense of other interventions in the other parts of the service. And we want to seek to minimise that so that people can get the care that they need across the board. None of the points that lie ahead of us, Steve, are fixed points. Though it's possible to project, it's not possible to predict, but it is certainly possible to seek to alter the course of that by taking the sort of measures we're asking people in Wales to take. I just want to say again, they are very restrictive measures. That is for a very specific purpose, which is to keep people alive and help protect the NHS's capacity. Will Hayward from Wales Online. Thank you very much. Is it really fair for supermarket staff on the ground to be caught in the middle of the ban on the sale of non-essential items? And exactly how are they meant to go about judging whether someone's request for non-essential items is genuine? Well, can I just say to start, Will, if I may, that shop workers have played a very crucial role in keeping society functioning since the start of this pandemic. And I paid tribute to shop workers right across Wales for the enormous contribution that you've made to keeping us all able to buy the things that we need and keeping society functioning. Absolutely is not the government's intention or the supermarket's intention to put shop workers in the position where they have those difficult judgments to reach. What we have been doing, as you may know in the last few days, is working with the supermarkets to provide clarification on the boundary between things which are non-essential and essential. So the regulations which we published last week, we published guidance, but the supermarkets made a reasonable request for greater clarity. We've provided that. We hope that will solve a number of the issues as it were on the ground. But we're also discussing a mechanism for how we can make sure that even those things which are non-essential retail, if an individual has a need for something in that category in given circumstances, that can be met. And we're working with the supermarkets to make sure that can happen on the ground in a way which is sensitive both to the consumer and to the member of staff. Obviously you don't want to put them in that position, but the new rules kind of have put them in that position, haven't they, because they're going to have to make judgment course. Can I ask you about the plans after the fire break? The First Minister has already indicated that he's going to prioritise reopening businesses, travel and how people can safely meet. Vaughn Geffing has said that there will be at least a week's notice and therefore the cabinet must now have some idea of the measures being considered. Can you outline some of the options under consideration for when the restrictions come in post-fire break? For instance, you said today that people will go back to work. Does that mean an end to the advice of people to work from home when they can? Well, the cabinet has had discussions around the options which are available. I've given you an indication, and I'm afraid at this point, I think that's as much as I can give you whilst those discussions are ongoing. It's very important that when people in Wales are given a steer in relation to what lies ahead, that it is on the basis of decisions and not on the basis of what might be speculation. So I'm very important that that is the context for that advice to be given. What we are doing today and tomorrow is speaking to local government and other partners across Wales about how these various options might work on the ground so that that set of thoughts and input from various stakeholders can be taken into account when those decisions are taken. As I mentioned earlier, they will cover things in relation to travel and contact and business, as you and your question suggested. But I think we will wait to see the product, the outcome of that set of discussions. There will be a further ministerial meeting this week, and then the First Minister will make an announcement after that. Josh Sirle from the South Wales Argus. Afternoon. The two-week fire break lockdown obviously came in on Friday, but for many places in Wales, there have been under some sort of restrictions since early September. Will the new national guidelines that you are looking to bring in replace these local restrictions, or will they be introduced alongside them? Josh, thank you for that question. I do want to acknowledge the contribution which people in those parts of Wales which have been subject to local restrictions have been making for a period before this national fire break. It's important for you to know that the restrictions which you lived with and the measures you took to respond to them have made a difference. The reason for the fire break is not because they made no difference. It's because the virus was spreading faster than we could respond using those measures. But in all parts of Wales, people have made a significant contribution before this fire break has been brought into effect. The intention and the hope, Josh, is to have a national set of regulations and guidelines rather than have the local pattern that we saw coming up to the period leading into the fire break and ideally for those to be simpler as well. But as I say, we'll have an announcement in the coming days which will give you more detail about what that looks like. The intention is to have a national set of provisions. And would it be right to assume then that this would see areas that weren't in local lockdown increased to a higher level, more in line with those that were rather than an easing of restrictions for the places in local lockdown considering the incidence rate nationally is much higher now than it was during September? Well, certainly the intention is obviously for the new provisions to be less restrictive than the provisions that we're working and living with at the moment. There is a range of various options on the table, Josh, around how some of these things work and decisions in one area affect very much decisions in other areas. So I think the best I can say to you now is that these questions are under live consideration by Ministers at the moment. And I hope it won't be very much longer before those decisions have been taken and that you can have that further detail from the First Minister himself. Thanks, Josh. Can I go back to Dan Bevan, who I hope might be able to come back to us for the second question, Dan? Yes, hopefully. The line will come, Council General. Thank you very much. As you might have noted from my question, it's more towards your European transition role. If you don't mind, what do you feel at the effect of an ever-present no-deal Brexit or at least the possibility of an ever-present no-deal Brexit will have, as we take on closer to the deadline, will have with regards to the Welsh people, but also adding in the pandemic as well, the economic impacts of that? Well, maybe I'll answer the question, if I may, in the context of the situation that we face now as a response to COVID. If there are any number of ways in which COVID, as well as being a very significant public health crisis for us across the UK and internationally, is also impacting on our economy and our society in a range of other ways. And it's against that backdrop that we have said that we think it will be sensible for the negotiations to be extended to allow for these things to be addressed sequentially rather than at the same time. Obviously, that isn't going to happen. And so what now needs to happen is for there to be a redoubling of effort on the part of the UK government on behalf of us in the UK to get the best available deal. I fear that at this point in time that deal isn't going to be what we would need in Wales, but I think it's important now against the backdrop of COVID that the UK government does everything it can to secure whatever the best available deal is at this point. Diolch yn fawr, Dan.