Image source, The New Saints

While top-level English football appears ready to take the first tentative steps towards a comeback, things may not be so simple in Wales.

European football's governing body, Uefa, wants answers from member nations by 25 May on whether seasons will be completed.

The questions still hang in the air for the Cymru Premier.

The Football Association of Wales has made it clear it wants to try to finish the top-tier campaign.

But there appear to be major challenges standing in the way of making that happen, with some clubs fearful of financial consequences.

You can read the full story here.

Image source, Dean Burnett

Peter William Burnett, 58, died from Covid-19 on 20 April.

Here his son, author Dean Burnett, pays tribute to his father.

Peter Burnett was a resident of Port Talbot but born and raised in Bettws in the Garw Valley.

In the 80s and 90s he was best known as the landlord of the Royal Hotel pub in Pontycymer, where he was a prominent community figure, whose exploits are still talked about to this day.

In later life he was an entrepreneur, becoming involved in industries as diverse as music management, property development and commodities trading.

He was an incredibly well-regarded figure with an extensive network of friends and relationships that spanned the globe, including prominent figures and household names from the worlds of sport, business and music.

He lived more in his short time than most people could ever hope to. He was a devoted and beloved husband, father, grandfather and brother.

His passing leaves a huge absence in countless lives. He will be sorely missed.

There would be “no value” in testing everybody in care homes, First Mnister Mark Drakeford has said.

Responding to Conservative group leader Paul Davies in a virtual Senedd session, Mr Drakeford said: “The reason we don’t offer tests to everybody in care homes… is because clinical evidence tells us there is no value in doing so.

"Because of that, we don’t do it.

"Testing people who have no symptoms, today - for that to be a reliable message to them, you’d have to test them again tomorrow.

"Because you can go from having no symptoms to having symptoms in 24 hours.

"Using the capacity we have in that way would be to divert the capacity away from where it is clinically worthwhile to do things where the clinical case for doing so is not one that has been advised to us.

“We are working with the care home sector to consider a wider testing remit in those care homes where there is clearly an outbreak of coronavirus.

“The case for wider testing there may be clinically stronger.”

Mr Drakeford said the number of tests available daily has increased to 2,100. It had been 1,800 at the end of last week.

Image source, Getty Images

The total number of people now officially known to have died with coronavirus in Wales has reached 886, according to Public Health Wales figures.

Another 73 deaths were announced on Wednesday.

The number of deaths in the Hywel Dda health board area has jumped to 34, correcting the earlier under-reporting.

First Minister Mark Drakeford tells AMs that "for the first time, we are close to self sufficiency in scrubs in Wales. By the end of next week we will be making 5,000 a week, bringing back overseas jobs and anchoring them in our Welsh economy".

He says: "We have worked with Alexandra, a UK company supplying the NHS with scrubs, and primarily with three Welsh business and social enterprises. Two are in north Wales and the third is a factory we created from scratch in Ebbw Vale in partnership with a social enterprise, creating jobs for 15 machinists who were long-term unemployed."

However, he adds that "not every offer of help turns out to be genuine. Almost one in five, subsequently investigated by the experts at our own Surgical Materials Testing Laboratory in Bridgend, turns out to rely on incorrect certification, or to be fraudulent".

He adds: "Each one takes time and effort and is an inevitable distraction from responding to the far greater number of generous and well-intentioned possibilities."

The first minister has said the Welsh Government is preparing its "own thinking" and "own possible measures" for how Wales could leave the coronavirus lockdown in case it cannot get UK ministers to engage with it on the matter.

In an interview with Sky News, Mark Drakeford said he had always been in favour of a "four-nation approach".

"The four nations of the United Kingdom took a decision to go into lockdown on the same day, and with the same measures in place, and my preference is to come out of lockdown in the same way - common measures to a common timetable across the United Kingdom," he said.

"But if we can't agree on that and it's a bit of a struggle, I have to say, to get the UK government to engage with us on that agenda.

"So we are preparing our own thinking, our own possible measures."

Mr Drakeford added: "My preference is to do it together.

"If we can't reach that point then, of course, my responsibility will be to make the decisions that are right for Wales."

Image source, Getty Images

Wales' health minister has apologised to the assembly and presiding officer Elin Jones for swearing after his microphone was left on by mistake during a virtual Senedd session last week.

Vaughan Gething vowed to deal with matters in a “more appropriate manner” in the future. He said the remarks about Cardiff Central AM Jenny Rathbone were not intended for broadcast.

He had already apologised to Ms Rathbone. The incident went viral on social media.

Speaking at the opening of Wednesday’s virtual Senedd session, Mr Gething said: “Obviously the comments in question after my statement had concluded were not intended for broadcast or entry on to the record.

“I did speak with the member of Cardiff Central on the day of question to apologise and I’m grateful to her for accepting my apology.

“I’m of course happy to withdraw the remarks and to provide the apology to the assembly and the presiding officer that is plainly required and I hope that helps all of us deal with matters in a more appropriate manner in the future, including of course myself.”

A four-year-old boy is walking or running three miles (5km) every day for a week in memory of his baby brother.

Ben Dixon was born in January with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia but died this month from complications following a heart and lung bypass.

His older brother Sam has been walking in his village in Carmarthenshire, ahead of Ben's funeral on Thursday.

Sam has received support from Wales head coach Wayne Pivac and raised almost £13,000 for good causes.

Image source, Getty Images

Another 73 deaths of people with coronavirus have been recorded in Wales - taking the total number to 886, Public Health Wales (PHW) has said.

The number of deaths in the Hywel Dda health board area has jumped to 34, correcting the earlier under-reporting highlighted on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the latest update from PHW , externalshowed there were 117 confirmed new cases, taking the total to 9,629.

Image source, Talyllyn Railway

With most Talyllyn Railway staff in Tywyn furloughed due to coronavirus, two new recruits are doing donkey work trackside and at stations on the seven-mile line in Cardigan Bay.

Donkeys Hamish and Lady Maude have been drafted in to graze the grass around Rhydyronen station and keep the trackside undergrowth in check.

Talyllyn Railway’s general manager Stuart Williams explained this is the first spring that the railway has not run trains since its preservation in 1951.

“Usually a combination of regular steam trains and our army of outdoor volunteers who strim, flail and tend to the lineside keeps the vegetation under control,” he said.

“Without these people in place, the lineside is reversing quickly to nature and becoming akin to a closed railway.

“We were pleased to be asked about the possibility of allowing a couple of local donkeys to graze the lineside at Rhydyronen, so Hamish and Lady Maude moved in and have been given their own part of the railway to maintain.”

Out-of-hours services in north Wales are looking to recruit as many GPs and advanced nurse practitioners "as possible", the local health board has tweeted.

Betsi Cadwaladr tweeted the appeal, directing would-be applicants to its recruitment page.

Local Democracy Reporting Service

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Hospital "death-bed" weddings can still be carried out in Pembrokeshire if staff and personal protective equipment (PPE) are available, the council has said.

Pembrokeshire council’s head of cultural, leisure and registration services, Mike Cavanagh, made a decision to allow such weddings to continue.

Cabinet member, Councillor Phil Baker, with responsibility for infrastructure, licensing and major events, was consulted about the plan.

A record of the decision states that allowing ‘Marriages by Registrar General’s Licence service’ only in hospital settings should be maintained “in light of the immediate impacts of Covid-19” subject to staff and PPE availability.

“It is considered that this important service should be maintained when the availability of staff and PPE allows it be delivered in a safe manner,” adds the decision record, published on 21 April.

This was a delegated decision under the community services directorate with the council publishing a record of decisions, from this and other directorates, on its website.

Assembly members are meeting this afternoon by video-conference, with statements on the coronavirus by First Minister Mark Drakeford, and by the health, education and local government ministers.

You can watch proceedings live by clicking on Senedd Live at the top of this page.

Conservative and Plaid Cymru AM's have criticised the announcement that Gordon Brown is to help the Welsh Government lead the country's recovery from the coronavirus crisis.

The former Labour prime minster, who led the UK between 2007 and 2010, has agreed to be part of an advisory group from outside Wales.

It will advise ministers on how services such as schools, transport and the NHS could operate once the lockdown restrictions have eased.

“The last thing that people in Wales need during this time of unprecedented crisis is another dose of Gordon Brown," Conservative AM Darren Millar said.

“Few in Wales have fond memories of his thankfully short premiership and harking back to the past is not going to solve the challenges of the present and propel Wales into the future."

Mr Millar also said he was "disappointed" at what he perceives as Welsh Labour "politicising" the advisory group.

Plaid Cymru AM Delyth Jewell said: “While I welcome the fact that the Welsh Government is already starting the work of post-Covid rebuilding, I hope they will reflect on what the road ahead requires, which is a complete and unambiguous dedication to forging the best possible future for Wales.

“Gordon Brown’s experience may have a part to play in this, but I would urge Mr Miles to tell him to leave his ideological baggage at the front door and to brush up on his knowledge of Wales, so that we can sure it’s the interests of Welsh citizens that are being served by his inclusion, not Mr Brown’s well-known unionist mission."

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty

Speaking on what Gordon Brown will bring to Mr Miles’ advisory group, Jeremy Miles said he "was prime minister at a time of difficulty in relation to the financial crisis, and so will bring a number of reflections from that first-hand experience".

He said thinking on leaving lockdown will be moulded on “three separate pillars of our commitment to environmental justice, economic justice and social justice”.

Mr Miles also reiterated calls on the UK government to pause Brexit negotiations, “because all governments in the UK are and should be focusing on the response” to coronavirus.

Mr Miles says the Welsh Government's priority was to "seek to continue to work on a four-nations basis" on handling the coronavirus pandemic.

His comments came after First Minister Mark Drakeford said, in an interview with Sky News earlier, that it was a struggle to get the UK Government to engage.

Mr Miles said: "We are not looking to take steps which are different for the sake of being different."

He said a framework document for exiting lockdown, published by the Welsh Government on Friday, was not an "attempt to plough our own furrow" but an "attempt to shape that broader UK discussion about how we deal with the complex questions of lifting the lockdown when the time comes".

Mr Miles was asked to talk through efforts and plans being made to prepare for community testing and surveillance of the virus.

In response, he referred to the plan published by the First Minister Mark Drakeford last week.

He said: “One of the important aspects of that framework… talked about arrangements for testing and surveillance and tracing”.

“So that, as we move out of lockdown, that capacity is also built so that we are able to ensure that we can say to people in Wales that the steps we want to be taking when the time comes, are ones which are safe.”

The Welsh Government's coronavirus recovery advisory panel, which includes former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, will hold its first virtual meeting on Friday.

Mr Miles says the advisory group will allow "voices from outside Wales - and outside the UK - to help bring different perspectives and challenge to our work".

He said Friday's meeting would focus on the impact Covid-19 has had on the economy, vulnerable people, the future of public services and the environment.

There will be more meetings next week.

Mr Miles also urged members of the public to share their views on the future with the Welsh Government, adding: "We want to hear from more people and so we are setting up a dedicated email address for you to send us your ideas about the future. It's ourfuturewales@gov.wales"

Wales is in "very strict" coronavirus lockdown restrictions but plans are being made for when they can be lifted, says a Welsh Government minister.

Speaking at the Welsh Government's daily coronavirus press conference, cabinet minister Jeremy Miles didn't give any timescales but he said the restrictions are under "constant review".

The minister said he is in charge of planning for "the recovery and what we want for Wales".

Mr Miles said Wales "must face the future open to new ideas" that would be "guided by our commitment to social, economic and environmental justice and by the values that have sustained Wales in difficult times".