WALES' health minister says another national lockdown cannot be ruled out - and people in Wales have a limited number of weeks to make decisions about their own behaviour to avoid it.

Speaking at Monday's Welsh Government briefing, Vaughan Gething has said the pattern of increasing Covid-19 cases in the country is “similar to the situation we faced in early February”.

He said Wales’ Tactical Advisory Cell had warned that “action should be taken now to prevent significant harm or another full lockdown”.

Mr Gething told the briefing that the range of measures to tackle local outbreaks had been increased in Wales.

“These include the possible introduction of curfews, restricting alcohol sales and changing pub operations including the possibility of shorter opening hours or only selling alcohol with food,” he said.

The minister said that wider lockdown is a national conversation.

The Leader:

Health Minister Vaughan Gething

He called for a more unified four-nation approach with COBRA, the shorthand term for the Civil Contingencies Committee that is convened to handle matters of national emergency.

But he added if that is not possible, the Welsh Government will make its own choices.

"It's not my objective to impose a national lockdown. It's my objective to keep people safe."

He says if people follow the rules, they can enjoy the freedoms that they have at the moment. He also said it was vital people are honest when contacted by the Welsh Government contract tracing teams.

But if cases of coronavirus rise then a national lockdown being imposed in seven weeks or sooner was a possibility.

He said that, although Wales suppressed coronavirus well over the summer, the challenge is we are seeing people relaxing too much and not paying attention to the rules.

This is the case with members of the public as well as some businesses not following measures.

Mr Gething said that anyone flouting the rules would find out that there are consequences.

"Our ability to keep out of lockdown depends on the decisions we decide to take," he said.

"If we see behaviour that isn't responsible, if it's the choice between a lockdown rather than seeing more people going in to hospital, I'm very clear we will choose lockdown on local or national levels."

He said there is a limited period of weeks for the public to reconsider their actions to avoid a lockdown.

Mr Gething said: "The rules are here for all of us, they are for the benefit of all of us, and they apply to all of us."