No easing of Covid-19 lockdown in Northern Ireland for the moment

The Northern Executive has decided not to make any alterations for the moment to the Covid-19 regulations, First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said on Thursday afternoon.

The two Ministers however said that early next week the Executive hoped to set out a “roadmap” on how the lockdown rules would be relaxed.

On Wednesday finance Minister Conor Murphy said he hoped a plan for easing the regulations would be announced on Thursday.

First Minister Ms Foster said however the R number, the rate of infection of the virus, at 0.8 still was not yet low enough to make any changes to the regulations.

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“We still believe that they are needed and are proportionate to deal with the threat of the spread of the virus,” said the DUP leader.

Ms Foster said she and Ms O'Neill had been in telephone contact with British prime minister Boris Johnson on Thursday and planned to be in further dialogue on Sunday – the day when the British prime minister is due to set out his own proposals for softening the lockdown rules.

From that conversation Ms Foster suggested Mr Johnson would not be “moving dramatically away from that stay-at-home message – that’s certainly what I got from him on our call today”.

Deputy First Minister Ms O’Neill said while Ministers did not have the “headroom” to ease the restrictions now they did want to give people hope for the future with the planned “roadmap” to be published early next week.

“We’re still in the response stage, we’re still in the fightback against Covid-19, but we’re also in the space where we’re planning for the recovery and that’s the light at the end of the tunnel that we know everybody wants to be able to see,” said Ms O’Neill.

“We are still on a knife-edge in terms of our fightback,” she added.

On softening restrictions Ms O’Neill said, “It is not about following Dublin or London, it’s about doing what is right for people here.”

Ms Foster said the Executive agreed on Thursday to recommend that people wear cloth face-coverings when in enclosed settings where social distancing might be difficult.

They gave their press briefing on a day when the North's Department of Health announced that four more people have died from Covid-19 bringing the total number of deaths in Northern Ireland to 422.

The department also reported 50 new confirmed cases of coronavirus, leaving the total number of cases in the North now at 3,984.

The North's commissioner for older people Eddie Lynch called for greater disclosure of information after high incidents of Covid-19 were reported in three Northern Ireland care homes.

The BBC’s Nolan Show on Thursday cited one unnamed nursing home where 36 out of 38 residents were diagnosed with coronavirus.

In another 29 out of 49 residents had the virus while in the third 36 out of 72 of the residents had Covid-19.

Mr Lynch said the figures were “extremely worrying”. He said they highlighted the need for greater disclosure of information about the incidence of Covid-19 in care homes.

A health department spokesman said work was continuing to ensure there was “extensive surveillance of the situation being undertaken” by care homes across Northern Ireland.

At the Ministers' briefing Ms Foster reported how health Minister Robin Swann said that in terms of the virus the "battleground" now was in the care homes.

She said more resources were being devoted to address the problem in care homes. “Those people in our care and nursing homes are our most precious and vulnerable people and we need to do all that we can (for them),” she said.

During the Ministers’ press conference Ms Foster reprimanded DUP MLA Alex Easton for shopping online for a pair of shoes during a meeting of the Assembly’s health committee.

Mr Easton “unreservedly” apologised after he was caught on camera looking at a pair of shoes on his laptop. What he did “was wrong and should not have happened”, said Ms Foster.