Wales health minister says pub crawls, stag dos and hen parties 'should not happen' during pandemic, health minister

Speaking at Tuesday's Welsh Government coronavirus briefing, Vaughan Gething has warned big booze-ups with groups of friends are too much of a coronavirus risk as he warned against pub crawls.

Mr Gething made his comments following a rise in coronavirus cases in Cardiff - one of Britain's top stag and hen-do locations.

Mr Gething blamed the spike on people not obeying social distancing rules and on "indoor contact rather than outdoor contact".

He appealed for would-be revellers to use “common sense” so as to avoid a surge in virus transmissions.

In Wales, people from the same household or extended household are allowed to meet indoors at pubs and other hospitality venues, while Welsh Government guidance says people should limit their contact with others outside of those groups.

Married Mr Gething told the Welsh Government’s coronavirus briefing: “I remember my own stag event and people from different households, more than a dozen different households, going together to meet, to sleep in two different caravans and go out to a range of different venues.

“That’s exactly what shouldn’t happen now because of the risks that we now face.

“So it’s an appeal to our common sense in the way that we want to maintain the freedoms that we have unlocked, because actually if coronavirus goes up and we see a further upswing, we may end up having to roll back on some of those freedoms.”

He added: "It's another warning sign for us that the relatively low rates of coronavirus should not lead to people taking risks and ignoring the guidance and the rules that we've provided.

"I don't want people returning to going on a pub crawl again, ignoring the advice about the number of people you should be going out to have a drink with.

"Traditional stag and hen parties, for example, should be things of the past still, because that's lots of people mixing, going out together."