Coronavirus Wales: IKEA chaos as 17-day ‘firebreak’ lockdown ends
Ready, Steady… QUEUE: Chaos in IKEA at end of Wales’s 17-day ‘firebreak’ – while cars cross border from locked-down England after stores, hair salons and pubs throw open doors
- Mark Drakeford announced a ‘path through to Christmas’ without lockdown as Welsh firebreak ended today
- Families celebrated the opportunity to see people again face to face but were warned to still be vigilant.
- Wales has seen 5,224 coronavirus cases in the past week but government say that
Freedom was embraced by Welsh families today who headed out to towns and Ikea as the country came out of its 17-day firebreak coronavirus lockdown – but the English were warned they were not welcome for now.
The restrictions were finally lifted after the government imposed the strict shutdown last months against a backdrop of rocketing Covid-19 cases.
It prompted early celebrations from some Welsh residents who said they were ‘so excited to see some real people’ and ‘get back to the new normal this week’.
And if Ikea in Cardiff was anything to go by, the lockdown has also festered a burning desire for flatpack furniture and Swedish designs.
Lines stretching through from the tills through the entire self-picking warehouse were visible in the flagship branch.
While the store seemed packed, customers did their best to social-distance and all appeared to be wearing facemasks.
Earlier queues had started forming at low-cost clothes shop Primark, which had reopened after over a fortnight of being shut.
The Cardiff branch had lines of eager shoppers waiting outside already when it flung open its doors at 9am today.
Hairdressers were also popular as hirsute Welshmen and women journeyed to get their lockdown barnets snipped.
And while pubs unbolted their doors to welcome drinkers back people from England – where a national lockdown is still in place – were warned not to break the rules and try to sneak across to nearby border towns.
One pub vowed to check every customer’s ID to see if they were supposed to be in Wales and turn them away if they were not.
One border crossing at Chepstow showed a number of cars coming through, but there was no suggestion they were doing anything but exempt essential travel.
The firebreak lifting now means schools, places of worship and all businesses can now reopen again.
Free travel is allowed – within Wales – and groups of 30 or 15 can take part in organised activity.
Ikea was a huge hit amongst the Welsh public, who had been denied the chance to buy its furniture for the past 17 days
The queue was so long it stretched all the way back from the tills through the self-picking warehouse area of the store
The eager shoppers wanted to take advantage of the new rules, which allow non-essential stores to open back up again
Pubs were welcoming people back into their bars, but ones in Wrexham said they would checking drinkers were from Wales
Drinkers in the City Arms in Cardiff raise a pint to the lockdown being lifted after a gruelling 17 days of firebreak restrictions
Businesses in Wrexham are worried that its proximity to the Welsh and English border may see people try to sneak over
Cars cross the Anglo-Welsh border in Chepstow on the day its lockdown was lifted with essential only travel in and out
Cardiff was busier than it was during the firebreak, after the Welsh Government announced non-essential shops could open
Members of the public in Wales were out in force on Monday morning to try and get some shopping done after lockdown
Not even the rain could dissuade hardened shoppers from braving the conditions to go to their favourite stores in Wales
Welsh Twitter users were overjoyed with the country coming out of lockdown and posted their celebrations online.
Gareth David Jones hailed the end of the shutdown and said he would be taking to the streets to celebrate.
He said: ‘Lockdown officially over here in Wales.
‘6am and jogging! I’ve not jogged for years – wish me luck.’
A Twitter user called Deb added: ‘I’m going back to face to face yoga this evening as Wales lockdown is lifted, so excited to see actual people other than school people.’
People queue outside Primark in the centre of Cardiff as the firebreak lockdown ends in Wales after over a fortnight closed
Haircuts were back in Wrexham as salons were back open, but fears have been raised people could come over from England
She added to a friend: ‘Will be able to get back to the ‘new normal’ this week, which will be way better than lockdown. Have a great week all.’
But businesses in Wrexham, which is just a few miles into Wales, said they feared English trying to sneak over for drinks and meals out.
Matt McHale, who runs the La Baguette sandwich shop, told The Guardian: ‘It’s bound to happen. The border is so close. Chester is only 25 minutes away and Liverpool isn’t very far. I don’t see how the police will be able to stop people crossing.’
Mark Finlay, the operations manager for pubs and bars including the Fat Boar in Wrexham, said they would be asking people for ID and turning them away if they were not living in Wales.
Labour First Minister Mark Drakeford welcomed the new phase of freedom but urged people to still be vigilant.
He said: ‘We all need to think about our own lives and what we can all do to keep our families safe.
‘We need to stop thinking about the maximum limit of rules and regulations.
‘Coronavirus is a highly infectious virus – it thrives on contact between people.
To keep each other safe we need to reduce the number of people we have contact with and the amount of time we spend with them.
‘There will be a new set of national measures from today, which will follow up all the hard work and sacrifices which have been made during the firebreak.
‘We cannot go back to the way we were living our lives and throw away all that hard work.’
He added in a press conference today that Covid-19 was ‘full of unpleasant surprises’ following the discovery of a new mutated strain of coronavirus in mink in Denmark.
‘We won’t know the full impact of our firebreak for a couple of weeks yet but there are some tentative early positive signs, which gives us some hope,’ Mr Drakeford said.
‘Mobility data shows large increases in people staying at home during the firebreak, similar to levels seen in May.
‘It is vital that working from home continues beyond today.’
The country’s stringent ‘firebreak’ ends tomorrow and will see shops, gyms, schools and places of worship reopen. Pictured: a deserted shopping centre in Newport
The number of coronavirus cases in Wales has started to plateau over the last four days
The country’s health minister, Vaughan Gething, has urged people to use these services wisely in order to avoid ‘throwing away’ the progress made in lockdown and having to go into another one.
Mr Gething announced that Covid-19 case rates are ‘levelling off’ and that mass testing will be considered in high infection areas such as Merthyr and the valleys.
And he added that the full benefits of the firebreak lockdown wouldn’t be known for at least two weeks.
Wales’s firebreak was initiated because the number Covid patients in the country’s hospitals is at its highest since the peak of the pandemic in April.
The lifting of restrictions will come four days into England’s fresh nationwide lockdown and further underscore the different strategies being adopted across the Union.
Mr Gething warned that treatments for cancer, heart and stroke issues could be affected if coronavirus infections go up again.
But he told the BBC: ‘We think we’re starting to see a plateauing, a levelling off, in the rates of coronavirus across the country.
‘It’s still at a high rate which means that there’s still a reservoir of coronavirus within our communities.’
Welsh Conservatives are pushing for local lockdowns in high infection areas in the hopes of avoiding another ‘draconian’ firebreak lockdown.
However Mr Gething said: ‘If we breach trust with the public and extend the end of the firebreak, having been clear it would come to an end, I don’t think people would be prepared to trust the government again and go along with what we want people to do.’
Wales firebreak was plunged into chaos when supermarkets cordoned off non-essential items
A woman sits on a bench in the town centre wearing a face mask in a quiet street in Newport this weekend
Wales has seen 5,224 coronavirus cases in the last week and 2,033 people in the country have died from the disease.
Figures from Public Health Wales show that coronavirus numbers have been starting to plateau for the last four days.
Mr Drakeford is hoping that the UK Government will stick to its plans of having all four nations meet to discuss a single approach to the Christmas period.