LOCAL lockdown restrictions in Caerphilly could be eased regardless of the situation in neighbouring authorities, first minister Mark Drakeford hopes.

Speaking at his briefing this afternoon, Mr Drakeford acknowledged the hard work of Caerphilly residents since local lockdown was introduced two weeks ago.

He described the early signs as "encouraging" and said public health officials were "cautiously optimistic" about the situtation.

When asked by the South Wales Argus if the easing of restrictions in Caerphilly would be dependant on the success of neighbouring areas the first minister acknowledged that authorities are linked, but said the Welsh Government would like to treat them on an individual basis.

Mr Drakeford said: "There is clearly a relationship between different local authorities.

"The virus doesn't stop at boundaries and people's lives do not stop at boundaries either.

"However, we have made the decision on each local authority on an individual basis and if the case can be made to begin to lift the restrictions in one local authority because it is now in a different place to others then I think that is the way that we would want to approach it."

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However, he again stated the link between the difficulty one local authority has at dealing with the coronavirus and the risk that poses to a neighbouring authority.

The first minister added: "We cannot get away from the fact that any one local authority is surrounded by others and would have to take that into account as well."