Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford has said he would not rule out a reintroduction of coronavirus restrictions.
Mr Drakeford said he is continuing to monitor the situation as cases across the 海角视频 rise. His comments echo those made at a press conference today by Scotland's First Minister.
Nicola Sturgeon said the country was facing the sharpest rises the country had experienced at "any point during the pandemic", and she said if the surge continued some restrictions may need to be re-introduced.
Mr Drakeford said that the easing of restrictions was never promised to be a "one way street".
"We have never said in Wales a move away from restrictions is a one-way street and there was never any turning back," he said.
It is a review week for restrictions in Wales, but Mr Drakeford confirmed restrictions are not likely to change on Friday.
Mr Drakeford said: "We’ve reviewed the figures again this week, and the cabinet met yesterday. We said two weeks ago that we didn’t intend to make any changes at the end of this week and that’s where I think we will be on Friday.
"At the moment the rising cases is not translating into huge numbers going to the health service, but we watch that every day, and if the circumstances were to get worse and if we did face the health service being under intolerable pressure, then of course we would have to look at the measures we could put in place.
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"I think we can have some optimism that the vaccination programme is holding up and is demonstrating its effectiveness in not eliminating the relationship between falling ill and needing hospital treatment, but amending it to an extent that the health service will be able to manage that impact in a way that doesn’t enable us to have to manage restrictions in a way we had to earlier this year."
Deaths from coronavirus in the 海角视频 are now averaging more than 100 a day with both hospitalisations and cases going up. Cases are up 13% on the previous seven days.
In Wales, the latest data from Public Health Wales showed another 1,393 cases in the 24 hours leading up to Tuesday, August 24, bringing the total in Wales to 266,149.
A total of 571 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week ending August 13 mentioned Covid-19 on the death certificate, according to the Office for National Statistics - up 8% on the previous week. It is the highest total since March.
Mr Drakeford said officials are looking at the situation in Scotland.
Children in Scotland returned to school after their summer holidays last week, and will have completed three weeks back in the classroom by the time Welsh schoolchildren return at the start of September.
With cases rising significantly among young people in Scotland coinciding with a return to schools, Mr Drakeford says the Welsh government and partners will “watch very carefully what happens in schools in Scotland”.
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Case numbers across Scotland have doubled in the last week, with hospital and intensive care admissions also rising.
Yesterday the Scottish government revealed 3,184 new cases in the last 24 hours.
Ms Sturgeon said they are also waiting to see if the return of children to the classroom last week will have an effect on the number of cases, something also being watched closely in Wales.
Mr Drakeford said: “We have good contacts in Scotland that make sure they give us the latest information as to how they see the picture emerging."
Welsh Government has said that individual schools will be able decide rules from September but unions have expressed concern about that. Welsh Government is yet to publish a guidance document for schools and education establishments. It has said that is expected "at the start of the 2021 to 2022 academic year".
Mr Drakeford said: "What we want is a more flexible system where decisions are made closer to the ground and where we can avoid situations where whole classes of children are being sent home because one child might have tested positive.
"We’ve learned different techniques and different ways of doing things and we will have to manage the fact that there will be coronavirus in schools as there is everywhere else but to do it in a way that minimises disruption on teachers, parents and other staff in schools and particularly for children themselves."