Commenting ahead of Wales moving to Alert Level 0 tomorrow, Welsh Conservative and Shadow Health Minister Russell George MS said:
“It is positive to see Wales finally gain more freedom as the isolation period for Covid is cut and the economically cruel and clinically unnecessary rules to counter Omicron are finally dropped in favour of a more proportional response – just as Welsh Conservatives have been calling for.
“However, this does not mean the pain ends for all those who lost out due to the recent overzealous restrictions: Welsh hospitality traded a third down compared to England since Boxing Day and compensation packages arrived in bank accounts later than Labour ministers promised.
“Moving forward, the Labour administration in Cardiff Bay must tell the public when there will be no more alert levels in Wales as with normality in touching distance, we need dates on when we can learn to live with the virus with no further threats of lockdowns to deal with hypothetical variants.
“This means removing harmful business restrictions, making facemasks a matter of choice and self-responsibility, and scrapping coercive, ineffective, and pointless vaccine passports that still have no proof that they work.
“The hard-work of the NHS, the excellent vaccine procurement and rollout programmes, and the resilience of the British people will soon see us become, as the WHO have suggested, one of the first countries to leave the pandemic behind as the virus becomes endemic.
“While we are moving closer to freedom, we cannot forget that while restrictions such as vaccine passports remain in Wales, we are being limited by a Labour government in a way that stifles economic growth and creates social resentment.”