THE Welsh Government has “paused” plans to allow smaller events to reopen, as well as relaxing rules on people meeting, due to the Indian variant, First Minister Mark Drakeford has said.

“We had thought of moving ahead with the reopening of smaller events, we’ll pause that for a moment,” Mr Drakeford told Sky News.

“We were thinking of liberalising the rules in the way in which people can meet together, not just in their extended household but beyond that, we’ll pause that for the moment.

“If the advice on the Indian variant is that it is safe to move ahead, we won’t need to wait for the end of our next three-week cycle to do those things, but the Indian variant is giving us cause for concern.

“We don’t know enough about whether it is more transmissible than the Kent variant, we don’t know enough about whether the vaccination programme is as effective in dealing with it as it is with other variants we have in Wales, and until we’re a bit clearer on that I think it is sensible to take a precautionary approach.”

Wales will move to alert level two on Monday with the reopening of indoor hospitality and entertainment venues.

Mr Drakeford was asked if the Indian variant gives him any pause for thought, and he told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme: “Yes, it certainly does. There were 17 cases of the Indian variant in Wales yesterday and over 700 in England.

“And as we were just hearing, there’s quite a concentration of that in the north-west of England and there’s a lot of traffic between the north-east of Wales and the north-west of England so we were considering a small number of further easements from Monday but have decided to hold back on those until we get the advice from Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) met yesterday, our own scientific advice which we’ll receive imminently, just to make sure that we are continuing to take a precautionary approach in case the Indian variant is on the march, and therefore Wales would be vulnerable to it as well.”

Asked if he would be prepared to delay further steps in his road map if advice from Sage suggests that it is necessary, Mr Drakeford said: “Yes, we would. We tried our best to follow the scientific advice at every step and if the advice were to be that we should hold back on some further easements because the risks in doing so would be too great then certainly that is what we would do.”

Meanwhile, in England, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said that Monday’s easing of restrictions in England will still go ahead despite concerns around the B1617.2 variant, which was first found in India.

“We think that the road map for Monday remains in place, because the vaccines are delivering, and vaccines are keeping people out of hospital and, of course, away from severe infection,” he told Sky News.

He added that the Government was “confident” this could continue but said officials would “continue to monitor” the situation.