Foster and O’Neill announce more lockdown relaxations in Northern Ireland

Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill have announced a further easing of lockdown measures as the number of deaths from Covid-19 increased by two to 518 in Northern Ireland.

With the death rate decreasing the First Minister and Deputy First Minister on Thursday afternoon listed areas where restrictions will be relaxed as long as the R or infection rate remains below 1.

These measures are set to come into effect from June 8th. From that date marriages and civil ceremonies can take place outdoors with a maximum of 10 people attending; people can attend to pets and non-farm animals including taking dogs to groomers; and sports courts would re-open. The training of horses will be permitted.

In addition hotels, while remaining closed, can take bookings “at risk”. This would mean that people could book engagements for late in the summer and for further ahead in the expectation but not the guarantee that they would go ahead.

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The First Minister and Deputy First Minister said some outdoor business outlets such as those selling cars and large agricultural machinery can open. Some indoor non-food businesses also can reopen such as those selling electronic equipment, mobile phones, and furniture and furnishings.

The Ministers warned however that these relaxations would not happen if the R rate went above 1 and that it was just below that figure at the moment.

Ms Foster said that the Covid-19 contact tracing programme was proceeding. She added that 99 health and social care staff were redeployed to help carry out this work which would run for two years. In the past seven days up to May 25th 212 cases were contact traced.

She explained that in an average eight-hour day “each tracer carries out all calls relating to five new positive cases and all of their contacts”.

Ms Foster said there were still too many reports of people not adhering to social distancing rules. She also said that traffic flows had increased by 11.5 per cent in the past week although that was still 40.3 per cent lower than a normal weekday.

She added that the Childline service had provided 16,644 counselling sessions between March 23rd and May 10th “for young people worried about their mental health and wellbeing”.

“So, we understand how important it is for everyone to see as much gradual progress towards normality as possible,” said Ms Foster.

Added Ms O’Neill, “Gradual easements will continue to occur if things are in the right space; for me it is about steady as you go,” said Ms O’Neill.

They made their announcement on a day when the North's Department of Health reported two more coronavirus deaths bringing the total number of fatalities in Northern Ireland to 518.

The department also reported sixteen new cases of Covid-19 taking the total number of confirmed cases to 4,679.

Meanwhile, figures published by the health department show that more than 307,000 people in Northern Ireland are now waiting for a first appointment with a consultant.

The figures also show that some appointments have reduced with people reluctant to visit hospitals due to the lockdown and coronavirus threat.

These latest waiting list figures relate to the three months up to March 31st this year, and do not cover most of the Covid-19 pandemic period in Northern Ireland.

The Minister of Health Robin Swann has warned a number of times that after Covid the waiting lists would move from "awful" to "frightening".

He said on Thursday that “the truth is that our health service will never be the same again”.

“Even with significant additional investment, the task of putting this right will be immensely challenging. For the foreseeable future, we will have to plan around the continuing threat posed by Covid-19,” added Mr Swann.