Pubs, bars, and restaurants in Wales will be banned from selling alcoholic drinks, and they will have to close by 6pm or switch to doing takeaway, according to the new set of rules unveiled for the hospitality industry.
Other entertainment venues, such as cinemas, bowling alleys, and skating rinks, will have to close outright.
The measures, announced by First Minister Mark Drakeford, will come into force from 6pm this Friday.
“I recognise just how hard the hospitality and leisure sectors have worked to comply with the regulations,” Drakeford said in a press conference, admitting the new rules’ harshness. “I know the new restrictions will be difficult, coming as they do at one of the busiest times of the year,” he added.
Anticipating backlash from business owners, workers, and customers, the first minister pleaded with the Welsh to consider the supposed severity of the pandemic. “We continue to face a virus that is moving incredibly quickly across Wales, and it is a virus that will exploit every opportunity when we spend time with one another,” he said.
However, Drakeford did not seem to find much support, as the new anti-coronavirus measures, coming just three weeks after he firebreak lockdown in Wales ended, were relentlessly attacked online. Commenters accused the Welsh government of “strangling parts of its economy,” and compared the country to North Korea. “Welcome to your new Prohibition era,” tweeted one person.
When will the Welsh government stop strangling parts of its economy ? latest lockdown means all pubs , bars , cafes to shut by 600pm this is the death knell of the hospitality sector in Wales
Anyone up for a holiday to North Korea? Let out hair down and enjoy a bit more freedom? ??
I hope every pub, bar, restaurant and cafe owner will immediately ban any politician from their premises. For life.
Welcome to your new Prohibition era. These post-liberal Puritans will suck all the joy out of life. I don’t even drink yet find this level of control abhorrent. Still think this is about a virus? How much is enough?
Only a few commenters seemed to agree with Drakeford, saying that bars and pubs did help the virus spread.
Suppose if you’re that desperate to have a drink, drink at home. The scenes I’ve seen outside the bars in Cardiff Centre of gangs congregating outside bars, theres no wonder
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