Welsh Cinemas, Theatres to Require COVID Pass

A cinema at central Cardiff in Wales. (Google Maps/Screenshot/The Epoch Times)

People will be required to show a COVID pass to enter cinemas, theatres, and concert halls in Wales from Nov. 15.

Welsh lawmakers passed the government’s motion to expand the use of COVID passes on Tuesday by 39 votes to 15 along party lines.

Fourteen Welsh Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats voted against the measure while Labour and Plaid Cymru backed it.

Currently, COVID passes are required as proof of full CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus vaccinations or up to 48-hours-old negative lateral flow tests results to enter nightclubs, unseated indoor venues for more than 500 people, and other venues with a capacity of over 4,000 people.

Civil liberty campaign group Big Brother Watch said on Monday that it is initiating a legal challenge against the “authoritarian, invasive, and unevidenced” scheme.

First Minister Mark Drakeford announced the government’s intention to expand the scope of COVID passes on Oct. 29.

Apart from cinemas, theatres, and concert halls, Drakeford also told the hospitality industry to get ready in case COVID passes will be required from as early as Nov. 19.

A street food vendor has also threatened to sue the government over the “farcical” measure.

According to an industry news website Big Hospitality, Matt Connolly, founder of Sticky Fingers Street Food in Cardiff, has hired JMW Solicitors, which wrote the Welsh government demanding it launches consultation with Connolly and others to hear the relevant experience, information, and evidence.

Connolly said the plan is a massive undertaking that would “add significant running costs to an extremely fragile industry and would be impossible to enforce,” and that “the preparation alone would come at a huge cost in hiring more staff and introducing new procedures and processes.”

The government had until Nov. 5 to reply to the letter. The Epoch Times contacted the Welsh government for comment.

Official data suggest the number of new CCP virus cases peaked in mid-October, with the highest 7-day average at 3,364.9—15 percent higher than the last peak in December last year (2923.7 ).

The recent peak in case numbers correlates with a surge in the number of tests done through the UK government’s testing programme.

The number of patients in hospital with the CCP virus is around one-third of the number when it peaked in mid-January, and the number of people who died with a positive CCP virus test within 28 days prior to their death is at about 23 percent of the number when it peaked around the new year.

Wales is currently the only administration that requires COVID passes in all cinemas and theatres by law. In Northern Ireland and Scotland, COVID passes are mandatory in nightclubs and larger events.

England currently doesn’t have any domestic legal restrictions in place except self-isolation for those who test positive for or have symptoms of COVID-19 and their unvaccinated adult close contacts.