Wales lifts ‘stay at home’ lockdown order as EU suffers fresh AstraZeneca vaccine blow – follow live

• Government order of ‘stay at home’ becomes ‘stay local’
• Four people from two different households can meet up outdoors to socialise, including in gardens, although children are excluded from that number
• Golf, tennis and basketball facilities can reopen
• One designated person can visit a care home resident

• All primary school children and those scheduled to take exams will resume lessons.
• Schools will have the flexibility to bring back year 10 and 12 pupils and more students will return to colleges
• Hairdressers and barbers can open up again but restricted to appointments only

• Gradual easing of non-essential shopping and non-essential aisles in supermarkets
• Garden centres can reopen

• Self-contained accommodation in Wales will be able to reopen provided Covid-19 cases continue to fall

• All shops, including all close contact services, will be able to open – the same date as in England
• All other pupils will return to school

Washington has told the European Union that it should not expect to receive AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines manufactured in the United States any time soon.

Separately, Thierry Breton, the bloc’s internal market commissioner, said he was not seeing “best efforts” from AstraZeneca to meet its EU delivery targets.

Novavax has said its vaccine is 96 per cent effective against the original Covid strain and 86 per cent effective against the British variant.

The results come from late-stage trials conducted in the UK. The shot is only 55 per effective against the South Africa variant, Novavax added.

The firm hopes to get authorisation to roll out its jab by May.

The Welsh government is to begin to reopen people’s personal lives and the economy as coronavirus numbers in Wales “continue to go in the right direction”, first minister Mark Drakeford has said.

People from two households will be able to meet in gardens from Saturday, while hairdressers and barbers will be able to operate from Monday. Non-essential retail will begin to reopen from March 22.

Mr Drakeford told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Provided things continue to go in the right direction, we hope to be able to reopen self-contained accommodation for the Easter period.”

He said that in many Welsh homes, people would need to go through the house to access the back garden but “the idea is you walk straight through, out the back door into the garden”.

“That will be a big step forward here in Wales, people haven’t been able to do that now for weeks and weeks,” he said.

“For many families that will allow grandparents to see grandchildren again and it’s a sign that cautiously, carefully and step by step, we’re now on the journey of reopening Welsh society.”

Thailand has said it will delay use of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine after several European countries temporarily suspended the jabs following a small number of reports of blood clots.

Yong Poovorawan, an adviser to Thailand‘s vaccination programme, said the delay, pending an investigation into the cause of reported side-effects, will not have a big impact on the rollout.

AstraZeneca says there is no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis with the vaccine.

Welsh people will be able to take holidays within Wales at Easter, the first minister has confirmed.

Mark Drakeford, the Labour leader in Wales, told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “We will reopen self-contained accommodation in Wales for Easter.

“So that means if you have a caravan or you can hire a cottage, then you’ll be able to do that.”

Travel correspondent Simon Calder has the full report: