By Karim El-Bar
LONDON (AA) - The Welsh government announced Wednesday that it would ban people from coronavirus hotspots in the UK from visiting Wales as of Friday.
Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford said he was "determined to keep Wales safe" and said there was evidence to suggest that coronavirus was "moving from east to west across the UK and across Wales."
Drakeford said: "Much of Wales is now subject to local restriction measures because levels of the virus have risen and people living in those areas are not able to travel beyond their county boundary without a reasonable excuse.
"This is designed to prevent the spread of infection within Wales and to other areas of the UK.
"We are preparing to take this action to prevent people who live in areas where there are higher COVID infection rates across the UK from traveling to Wales and bringing the virus with them."
Official data by the UK government on Wednesday also showed that a further 19,724 people tested positive for coronavirus across the UK over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 654,644.
The data also showed that there were a further 137 deaths, bringing the total to 43,155.