and takes to organise and all of those things, they ve got to get home, are they going home with an overnight bag or taking everything that they ve had for two months to live away from their families? these are really practical decisions stop from a theatre point of view, we have put so much effort into making the theatre safe, and we have staff that need, we need to let them know what they are doing, so many staff across the cultural sector are freelancers. they need to plan for both their income and their workload. and we don t know, we are still literally going from day to day and of course so many theatres have had to cancel simply because of illness in the company, notjust because of illness in the company, not just on because of illness in the company, notjust on stage but off stage as well. have to make the decision every day and for every performance, hour by hour, whether it s still
day, there will be several thousand identified omicron cases in wales with the real number being much higher and we do therefore need to think about the last mixing taking place around these events, notjust in the stadiums. it is place around these events, not ust in the stadiums.i in the stadiums. it is a few days until boxing in the stadiums. it is a few days until boxing day in the stadiums. it is a few days until boxing day and in the stadiums. it is a few days until boxing day and we - in the stadiums. it is a few days until boxing day and we are i in the stadiums. it is a few days i until boxing day and we are talking to the manager of the ice hockey team, the cardiff devils after 11am and he is telling us they are playing a game on boxing day in coventry, it will be sold out in front of 3000 fans. many fans will travel. then it s back to wales for a game the next night in front of no fan so how does that make sense? it is a relative different governments making different
evidence is there by ahead but without spectators. what evidence is there by putting sport behind closed doors that that makes any difference to the spread of omicron? we any difference to the spread of omicron? ~ ~ ., any difference to the spread of omicron? ~ ~ ., ., . ., , omicron? we know omicron is even more transmissible omicron? we know omicron is even more transmissible than omicron? we know omicron is even more transmissible than the - omicron? we know omicron is even more transmissible than the delta l more transmissible than the delta variant, we know it is more likely to evade the vaccine response as well and there s no confidence at all that it is a sufficiently milder version of covid if it is indeed manner at all, not to cause significant harm so you have to seek notjust significant harm so you have to seek not just the event significant harm so you have to seek notjust the event it is taking place on the field and in the stadium but actually all of the mixing tha
the challenge is omicron has succeeded in every health board area in wales and by boxing day, we expect to have several thousand cases of omicron identified with the real fear of it being cases of omicron identified with the realfear of it being much higher. we have already indicated as you heard from our first minister on friday that there will be a new legal regime of protective measures in place for the 27th so we had to decide do we go ahead with all the boxing day fixture is that we know are socially important and make a big difference to all those clubs at community level and then introduce different restrictions the following day? and what would it mean to have those events taking place, notjust in the grounds but all of the travel to and from, mixing around the venues as well? we took the difficult but i think the right decision to give clarity at this point that there would be restrictions, those fixtures can go ahead but without spectators. what ahead but without spectators.
enough? i m thinking about the smaller grassroots clubs, once you have dealt with rugby and football? we are thinking about the initial phase of this, because we have more protections that we are likely to introduce from the 27 onwards, we are going to have to see what that means for the period of time it could happen. i have already announced £60 million to go towards businesses affected by the measures we are going to confirm over the coming days. and we will then see what the initial money we are providing sporting organisations will actually mean for that longer term. in all of this, as you heard on your previous guest, there is lots of uncertainty about how long we are going to need to take more protective measures but we will do the right thing to trying to do everything we can, notjust for sporting clubs but for the wider economy as well. we really think we will be helped in doing that if there was a return to furlough and we would be confident more protective measures would be