Non-essential shops in Wales will close from the end of trading on Christmas Eve, with an alert level four lockdown starting four days later.

Close-contact services, such as hair salons, will also have to shut before Christmas, First Minister Mark Drakeford has announced. All pubs, cafes and restaurants will close at 18:00 GMT on Christmas Day.

Meanwhile Mr Drakeford said only two households should meet during the festive period.

Opposition parties warned of the potential for confusion and mixed messaging, with the stronger advice coming despite an agreement between the UK nations to stick to plans to allow three households to mix between 23 and 27 December.

No formal joint announcement had been made by the time of the Welsh Government press conference.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted the four nations had "unanimously" agreed to keep the relaxed rules over Christmas, despite Scotland also telling fewer to meet.

UK leaders have come under pressure to revise the plans amid rising cases. The situation in Wales was "extremely serious", Mr Drakeford said, with one in five Covid-19 tests returning a positive result.

More than 2,100 people, "equivalent to five full general hospitals" were being treated in the NHS with Covid, he said.

Wales will go into a level four lockdown, the highest possible, from 28 December, with some sectors closing during the Christmas period.

Under the recently-published plans people will be expected to stay at home, with travel only allowed for essential reasons.

From 28 December, public facilities and holiday accommodation must be shut, and wedding receptions and wakes will need to be called off.

Pubs and restaurants had already been told not to sell alcohol earlier in December, and outdoor and indoor attractions - such as cinemas - are closed now.

The lockdown has no end date and will be reviewed every three weeks, beginning in January. As well as non-essential retail, leisure and fitness centres will have to shut after Christmas Eve.

What have the opposition said?

For the Conservatives, Andrew RT Davies said the first minister was causing "more confusion" over the Christmas rules for household mixing - which had not been firmly announced by the time of the press conference.

"That's no way to deliver this really important news - news which will have implications for how people will spend this really important Christmas period".

Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price said there was "potential for confusion and mixed messaging" as a result of the decision to allow rules to be relaxed over Christmas while strengthening public guidance.

"It is absolutely the right thing to do to change the guidance - that's what we call for certainly as a minimum because of the worsening situation in Wales", he said.

'Many arrange Christmas Day meals'

Mr Drakeford defended allowing hospitality businesses to stay open until 18:00 on Christmas Day.

"We are anxious not to face that industry with additional difficulties at this point," he said.

"We know that many people who live alone arrange their Christmas by booking a meal on Christmas Day, so that they can be in the company of other people.

"I wanted to be able to honour that so that those people do not face an even bleaker Christmas, even more alone and they otherwise would be with all the other harms that come from that."

What do the latest figures tell us?

Nine council areas have more than 20% of tests coming back positive in the last week.

The World Health Organisation has recommended this should be below 5% for places to come out of restrictions.

NHS Wales has again reported record numbers of patients with Covid-19 in hospital beds.

This amounted to 2,143 on Tuesday, 17% more than a week before, and included 614 patients still recovering from the virus but not well enough to be discharged.

Under-pressure hospitals in the Aneurin Bevan health board have the most Covid patients - 620, which is 45% of all patients in its beds.

Numbers of Covid patients in critical care across Wales are also at their highest since the end of April.

Meanwhile, the latest R-number - the rate at which the virus is estimated to be transmitting - is estimated to have increased to a range between 0.9 and 1.2 in Wales. Anything above 1 indicates Covid is increasing.

The Sage scientific body estimates the virus could be shrinking or growing by between -1% and 4% a day in Wales.

Wales-wide rules

Later Mr Drakeford told the Senedd that despite the fact there is variation of coronavirus in parts of Wales, the whole country will be subjected to the highest restrictions.

"Coronavirus is rising in every part of our country and we have an obligation to take the action which will protect all parts of our country".

"If some parts of Wales demonstrate in a reliable and sustainable way that they are in a different part of the spectrum to other parts of Wales, well that can be recognised but we are not in that position today", he said.