© Ben BirchallPeople walk past a florist as they pull their hoods over their heads in Porthcawl, Wales (Ben Birchall/PA)
Wales could allow small food festivals and small live music and arts events to reopen next week if the Indian coronavirus variant poses no need to pause relaxing restrictions, Mark Drakeford has said.
The First Minster said there were now 26 cases of the mutated strain of Covid-19 across Wales, up from 17 on Thursday, with each case associated with foreign travel as opposed to community transmission.
Scientists believe the Indian variant may be more transmissible than the UK variant first detected in Kent last year, and may be linked to India's second wave.
With indoor hospitality and entertainment venues due to reopen in Wales on Monday, the country's chief medical officer Frank Atherton has advised to pause further easements until more is known about the risk the variant poses.
Mr Drakeford said he had planned to reopen "food festivals that you see held in very local communities, to small events like live music or arts".
He said the UK Government's Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) group was expected to give its advice later on Friday, with the Welsh Governments own scientific advisers reporting back "very shortly".
Mr Drakeford told the PA news agency: "The Indian variant was emerging as an issue of concern just as we were having that discussion.
"If the advice is that we can move ahead safely, then we don't have to wait three weeks and we'll be able to do that as early as next week.
"If the advice is that we need to pause a bit longer while we get a better understanding of the scale of transmission of the Indian variant, particularly across our border, then we'll have to do that."
© Provided by PA Media(PA Graphics)
Cases of the variant in Wales were scattered across the county, Mr Drakeford said, with individuals having travelled "from India in particular, but there are probably some cases from the broader subcontinent".
Mr Drakeford said Wales was "in a very good position already" with regard to vaccinating vulnerable groups, with over 90% of care home residents, 91% of people aged over 70 having received a second dose.
But he said the country could calibrate the vaccination programme to take account of a new variant "if that was sensible".