Welsh first minister blasts UK government for overconfident coronavirus signals

The UK government is giving an unduly optimistic message to the public on the current state of the Covid-19 epidemic in the country, Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford said.

“Here in Wales I continue to tell the Welsh citizens: coronavirus has not gone away. It remains and it kills people in Wales every day,” he told Sophy Ridge on Sunday. “And that’s a very different message, I think, to the message across the border.”

Drakeford said in substance the policies of his government and that of Prime Minister Boris Johnson were not far apart. But London’s signals that people can go back to their lives were misleading and dangerous, he said.

The Welsh official also seemed to criticize Johnson for a lack of planning, saying: “We put our efforts into planning first and making the announcement second, not making an announcement and then thinking about how you can make those things happen.”

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