Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley on Sat­ur­day ad­mit­ted to ac­ci­den­tal­ly break­ing the COVID-19 pub­lic health reg­u­la­tions.

The Prime Min­is­ter was warn­ing riv­er go­ers about how easy it was to slip up and break the reg­u­la­tions against the con­sump­tion of al­co­hol in a pub­lic space and re­count­ed a sto­ry about his own slip.

The Prime Min­is­ter was speak­ing at the week­ly me­dia brief­ing at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, St Ann's, and re­called sip­ping on a beer while walk­ing back to his ve­hi­cle.

"I was in Cas­tara last week, in a ve­hi­cle and I went in­to a place that sold beers and I had a beer and on my way to the ve­hi­cle I had this beer in a con­tain­er, the plas­tic bag which it was in, and it was such a hot and beau­ti­ful day that I sipped my beer and then some­body came up to me and said 'you, con­sump­tion of al­co­hol in a pub­lic place is against the law'," Row­ley said.

"So you missed the op­por­tu­ni­ty for see­ing me be­hind bars for breach­ing," he said.

He used the sto­ry to re­mind those ac­cess­ing the rivers and beach­es that al­co­hol con­sump­tion was off-lim­its.

"It hap­pened so eas­i­ly but it was a breach of the reg­u­la­tions, it hap­pened so eas­i­ly that I un­der­stand, but we re­al­ly have to say hold on for the time be­ing, do not go to the rivers for riv­er limes and cook duck by the thou­sands," he said.