Why on earth does Dripfed have to wait another two weeks, I suspect it is just because he’s enjoying the power over peoples lives and of course he can?
In the meantime the Welsh economy will continue to suffer against a background of Covid cases now dropping like the proverbial stone. Yesterday the UK figure was down to 109,000 cases, a fall of 20% on the day before, and from a peak of 246,000 on 23rd December.

Regarding the difference between South Africa and here.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-59960949

Taunton Iron Cider wrote: January 14th, 2022, 6:41 am Why on earth does Dripfed have to wait another two weeks, I suspect it is just because he’s enjoying the power over peoples lives and of course he can?
In the meantime the Welsh economy will continue to suffer against a background of Covid cases now dropping like the proverbial stone. Yesterday the UK figure was down to 109,000 cases, a fall of 20% on the day before, and from a peak of 246,000 on 23rd December.

I've no idea if Drakeford is enjoying the power over peoples lives, but like it or not he has been democratically elected to be able to have a degree of power to do so.
I see the falling of the reported case numbers of secondary importance compared to the numbers of people in hospital which continue to be over 2 1/2 times greater than they were prior to omicron, UK wide including Wales, with no sign of any significant reductions, although they do appear to be stabilizing. Meanwhile the unvaccinated continue to almost fill up the ICUs Nationwide, thus compromising the level of care the NHS can provide. Aggravated by medically fit patients who cannot leave hospital because the pandemic has decimated capacity in social care. Against that background I see the 'Welsh economy continuing to suffer' as you put it as for another two weeks very much of secondary importance. Of course others may feel it more important.

Suspect the onus of any reductions in restrictions including the 'fan ban' will be put very much on the behaviours of the Welsh public over the next 2 weeks in todays announcement. Will we as individuals and collectively be able to behave responsibly enough to not increase case numbers and allow hospital numbers to fall. Has even the selfish and delusional unvaccinated had enough of a wake up call to be more responsible in their behaviours so that they don't continue to disproportionately fill up the ICUs. Hopefully the next 2 weeks will be able to provide some answers.

Mark Drakeford is due to make an announcement today that current Covid restrictions will be phased out over a two week period. Fingers crossed.

500 spectators allowed from tomorrow. Probably too late to implement this for tomorrow's game.

Taunton Iron Cider wrote: January 14th, 2022, 6:41 am Why on earth does Dripfed have to wait another two weeks, I suspect it is just because he’s enjoying the power over peoples lives and of course he can?
In the meantime the Welsh economy will continue to suffer against a background of Covid cases now dropping like the proverbial stone. Yesterday the UK figure was down to 109,000 cases, a fall of 20% on the day before, and from a peak of 246,000 on 23rd December.

Yes I'm sure he's 'enjoying power over peoples lives', the Welsh economy taking a hit and knowing that his decisions will make him deeply unpopular with a big percentage of Welsh people, especially those type that, rather hilariously, call him Dripford/Dripfed

You're wasting your breath, Exile 1976. People who think they're making a hilarious, acerbic political point by saying "Dripford" won't have the brains to recognise the irony in your post.

On the issue at hand, people need to act responsibly when we're allowed back so there can be no argument for re-imposing restrictions in the future. That means mask-wearing in the concourses and respecting social distancing. There's a strong case that selling alcohol in the concourses isn't a good idea in the current climate either, as it leads to a lowering of inhibitions and a reduced likelihood of people taking the precautions mentioned above. Common sense is required - but as we've seen in the last two years, common sense ain't all that common.

Exile 1976 wrote: January 14th, 2022, 9:16 am

Taunton Iron Cider wrote: January 14th, 2022, 6:41 am Why on earth does Dripfed have to wait another two weeks, I suspect it is just because he’s enjoying the power over peoples lives and of course he can?
In the meantime the Welsh economy will continue to suffer against a background of Covid cases now dropping like the proverbial stone. Yesterday the UK figure was down to 109,000 cases, a fall of 20% on the day before, and from a peak of 246,000 on 23rd December.

Yes I'm sure he's 'enjoying power over peoples lives', the Welsh economy taking a hit and knowing that his decisions will make him deeply unpopular with a big percentage of Welsh people, especially those type that, rather hilariously, call him Dripford/Dripfed

Drakeford, who I wouldn't personally insult as at heart I believe he is a decent if misguided man, does not help himself - he has allowed his 'principles' to cloud his judgement on these issues and the 'optics' look like he and his cabinet have purposefully tried to look like they are one step ahead of 'England' on matters Covid whether or not the measures in Wales stand up to scrutiny or not - so the 'optics', yes somewhat unfairly, show that he ‘enjoys’ this…thankfully we should be able to attend games post 21st Jan and the soon to be brought in '500' rule will be a great help to lower level spectator sports

The large reduction in the number of infections has come suddenly and with remarkable measure. Only on the 7th January Wales had 2,300 new cases per 100k of population in 7 days. Now, only a week later, it is down to about 1,200. The swift waning of omicron was foreseen but the peak was 10,000 cases a day instead of 14,000 a day which was predicted by the Swansea University model. So there has been a short hesitation to be sure that cases are not going to climb again. That is still not certain but Drakeford is to be applauded for moving to lift restrictions after only one week of improvement. Crowds will be back in stadiums from a week tomorrow. The people working in the hospitals are not going to welcome these changes and my sympathy and admiration for the service they are providing for us in the most difficult of circumstances goes out to them. And also my thanks for delivering 1.8 million booster jabs in Wales in such a short time.

Kairdiff Exile wrote: January 14th, 2022, 9:24 am You're wasting your breath, Exile 1976. People who think they're making a hilarious, acerbic political point by saying "Dripford" won't have the brains to recognise the irony in your post.

On the issue at hand, people need to act responsibly when we're allowed back so there can be no argument for re-imposing restrictions in the future. That means mask-wearing in the concourses and respecting social distancing. There's a strong case that selling alcohol in the concourses isn't a good idea in the current climate either, as it leads to a lowering of inhibitions and a reduced likelihood of people taking the precautions mentioned above. Common sense is required - but as we've seen in the last two years, common sense ain't all that common.

Stay at home please. Make a personal stand for your own safety. Me and my dad will be going for a beer at ht

County4Life wrote: January 14th, 2022, 10:15 am

Kairdiff Exile wrote: January 14th, 2022, 9:24 am You're wasting your breath, Exile 1976. People who think they're making a hilarious, acerbic political point by saying "Dripford" won't have the brains to recognise the irony in your post.

On the issue at hand, people need to act responsibly when we're allowed back so there can be no argument for re-imposing restrictions in the future. That means mask-wearing in the concourses and respecting social distancing. There's a strong case that selling alcohol in the concourses isn't a good idea in the current climate either, as it leads to a lowering of inhibitions and a reduced likelihood of people taking the precautions mentioned above. Common sense is required - but as we've seen in the last two years, common sense ain't all that common.

Stay at home please. Make a personal stand for your own safety. Me and my dad will be going for a beer at ht

You are being sarcee but you have a fair point - it’s a case of if you are 'scared' or vulnerable well frankly - stay at home - far better to 'isolate' the 5% < than lockdown (or lockdown lite) the 100% - time to learn to live with it and YES accept an 'acceptable death rate' as we do with [say] influenzas - sorry people 100% of us will die 100% of the time and likely of anything but covid and before I die which hopefully won't be for a fair while yet - I want to live just a little even if in my odd way enjoy life a bit...don't be reckless and do take sensible precautions but don't be cowed by fear either - balance the risk and make a personal choice - I'll respect anyone who didn’t want to attend a game of football or go to a pub, etc but will not accept that persons fears impinging on my choice to do so (where all the science now says that on balance my choice is the rational and 'safe' one). I’m usually very pro minority but in this case the tail simply must no longer wag the dog…finally common sense has prevailed...

Science is used to predict the likely outcome in these cases. It's about the impact it has on numbers and the problem that causes for our essential services. We will most likely all get Omicron at some point, we will all die eventually anyway. Dieing unnessarily, not because of your own actions/inactions, but because someone else couldn't care less is the point.

Honestly it's laughable. You want to attend a match but some on here telling me I shouldn't have a beer and should be frightened to death about bumping into someone else (respect social distancing).

Just have a read back on some of the comments, not even the BBC are as mental as this, and why do they need to when they got mind-controlled bots spreading it (the message) for them. Stay away from your fellow man, and don't drink beer as you can't be controlled afterwards.

Some on here have completely lost all sense of reality, i.e, what football is about. You may aswel just forget about having fans back in. Safer option is a year's ifollow subscription which I strongly reccommend purchasing if you're only coming to RP to moan about fans.

Mark Drakeford was on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 again today. He gave the figures that G Guest has posted above. Once again, and unlike any UK cabinet minister that I've heard in years, he fully answered every question. It is a fact that he has closely followed the advice of the Wales Chief Medical Officer since the start of the pandemic which cannot be said of the UK Government.

I wonder what those on here favouring the Johnson philosophy would do if they were in Drakeford's position. It's easy to snipe and make up silly names for the man, but would you go against the guidance of senior clinicians if you were responsible for the health of a nation?

We know that there are leaders that will and I remember Fauci standing at a lectern and saying the exact opposite of what Trump had just said. It isn't so blatant with Chris Whitty but it's obvious that he isn't fully behind the UK Goverment's path.

I'm a Labour voter and I wasn't that impressed with Drakeford before the pandemic but I've been very impressed with him over the last 2 years, as are a lot of other left leaning people all over the UK. They appreciate someone who answers the given question.

I think County For Life is misunderstanding / mischaracterising the argument. Of course we all want to get back to normal - but COVID and its variants will be with us for some time, so surely a diluted form of football is better than not being allowed to attend at all. If we continue to treat it as a binary (no fans at all vs everyone acting as they did pre-pandemic) then we'll most likely find that a return to a 'fan ban' is deemed necessary. Whereas if we act with a degree of moderation, there's a much better chance that government will be less likely to impose draconian restrictions when the next variant arises.