PUBS, restaurants, bars and cafes will be able to reopen indoors from Monday, the First Minister has said.

Mark Drakeford said he was "confident" the current state of coronavirus in Wales meant it is safe for hospitality businesses to resume indoor service.

Public Health Wales said today (Thursday, July 30) a further two people had died after testing positive for Covid-19, taking its total number of deaths to 1,556, while the number of cases increased by nine to bring the total of confirmed cases to 17,232.

Mr Drakeford told the Heart South Wales radio station he had been "impressed" with the way hospitality businesses had operated with outdoor service since they were able to on July 13, and that outdoor service would also now be allowed from August 3.

He said: "We said a couple of weeks ago that, provided everything went according to plan, we would be able to reopen indoor hospitality - cafes, restaurants, bars and so on, on August 3.

"It depended upon the state of the coronavirus.

"We've had the latest checks.

"We're confident now that we'll be able to go ahead."

Mr Drakeford will formally announce the latest relaxing of measures at a press briefing on Friday afternoon.