The Welsh government has confirmed that a travel ban preventing people from areas of the UK with high levels of coronavirus from entering Wales will come into force later on Friday.

First Minister Mark Drakeford confirmed the news and in a statement, said the number of Covid-19 cases across Wales was growing, with the health services coming “under pressure”.

“To keep Wales safe, the Welsh Government is therefore amending the regulations to make it clear that people living in areas with a high prevalence of coronavirus in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland would not be able to travel to parts of Wales where there is a low prevalence,” Drakeford said.

“It is vital that we keep communities which have low levels of infection as safe as possible and this sensible and necessary restriction will help prevent the virus moving from more urban, highly populated areas to more sparsely populated areas.”

Drakeford admitted the Welsh Government is “looking very carefully” at introducing a circuit-breaker lockdown to slow the spread of the virus in Wales.

People are already unable to enter or leave areas of Wales subjected to local lockdown restrictions without a reasonable excuse such as work or education.

As of Friday, there have been a further 979 cases of Covid-19 diagnosed in Wales, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 34,005.

Public Health Wales said five further deaths had been reported, with the total number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic rising to 1,703.