FIRST Minister Mark Drakeford said there were no plans to reopen gyms in Wales at present due to advice from scientists that the Kent variant of coronavirus made doing so “more challenging”.

Mr Drakeford told the PA news agency: “The advice that I have seen from our scientific community is that the Kent variant, which is so much more transmissible, makes gyms a more challenging sector to reopen than before the Kent variant took hold.

“So I’m afraid there isn’t a prospect that gyms and leisure centres and so on will open by the middle of March, and it may be some while after that before we can safely return to doing so, at least indoors and in the conventional way.

“The gym sector did a great job last year and did a great deal in using outdoor spaces, conducting classes outdoors, providing facilities in the open air.

“But gyms as we conventionally think of them, I’m afraid, are going to be more of a challenge to reopen this year than even last year.”