WALES is facing the prospect of a second fire-break lockdown in the New Year, a Welsh Government minister has warned.

Wales' deputy minister for economy and transport, Lee Waters, says a second fire-break lockdown could be required in Wales by January or February next year.

Mr Waters told BBC Wales' Sunday Supplement programme that this is "not the last lockdown we're likely to see", despite acknowledging that people are "thoroughly fed up" of restrictions.

He said the Welsh Government was trying to "flatten the curve" of the second wave of Covid-19 but could not stop the virus from spreading entirely.

Mr Waters said: "I'm afraid its going to get worse. This is not the last lockdown we're likely to see.

"I think the projections in the papers we've published on our worst-case scenarios shows it's likely we're going to need to have another fire-break in January or February.

"It's important that we can show that we are being rational, we're being evidence-based and we are being transparent. We are trying our best to do that."

Mr Waters said epidemiologists had predicted more than one peak of coronavirus, with the second worst than the first and "the third worse again".

He added: "We are doing our best to try and flatten the curve. We can't stop the curve, we cannot stop this virus spreading and our best hope is to wait for a vaccine to help us to bring it under control.

"Until we have that, we're going through what the epidemiologists called the hammer and the dance.

"The hammer comes down and then you emerge from it so a dance of in, out, move around, down comes the hammer again when it gets out of control.

"That's what we're seeing across the world."