(19 Dec 2020) Wales announced on Saturday it was bringing forward plans for a new national lockdown whilst a strict travel ban between Scotland and the UK will remain in place over the festive period to try and stop the spread of a new variant of the coronavirus.
Both nations, which have their own devolved governments and independent rules for controlling the virus, confirmed cases of a new mutation of the virus which has also been found in London and areas in the South East of England.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday said early evidence showed the fast-moving new variant was 70% more transmissible than existing strains and appeared to be driving the rapid spread in London and southern England.
However, he stressed there was "no evidence" to suggest it was more lethal or that vaccines will be less effective against it.
Wales was set to go back into lockdown after the festive period.
But in light of the new information on the new variant First Minister Mark Drakeford said ministers had decided to bring the lockdown forward with it set to take affect from midnight on Saturday.
While the number of people testing positive with the new variant remained lower in Scotland than in the the rest of the UK First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the country needed to learn from earlier stages of the pandemic and take preventative action sooner.
"In order to reduce the risk of more of this strain being imported into Scotland, we intend to maintain a strict travel ban between Scotland and the rest of the UK," she said confirming the ban would remain in place over the festive period.
Both nations confirmed they would also be following new rules set out by Johnson for most of England in reducing the planned five day relaxation of restrictions over Christmas to just one day.

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