The lifting of Covid-19 legal restrictions in Northern Ireland should not be viewed as “freedom day”, Stormont’s chief scientific adviser has said.
Professor Ian Young urged people to continue to wear face masks in certain public settings, even though it will no longer be a legal requirement.
However, hospitality business owners have hailed the easing of regulations as the “beginning of the end” of the pandemic and have expressed hope that trade will now return to normal.
The requirement for people to wear face coverings in settings such as shops and on public transport ended at 5pm on Tuesday, while Covid certificates will no longer be needed to gain entry to nightclubs and large indoor unseated events.
Businesses will also no longer be required to undertake coronavirus-linked risk assessments or collect track and trace information from customers.
While the curbs are being removed from law, they are remaining as guidance.
Self-isolation guidance upon infection is not changing and neither is the Executive’s “work from home where possible” message.
Prof Young said: “When something changes from regulation to guidance it doesn’t mean that our behaviours need to change, or indeed that they should change.
“I think most of our population are acutely aware of the dangers and risks which Covid has brought, the huge harms that have been done.
“We all want people to get back to living as normally as possible – wearing a face covering in appropriate settings doesn’t stop that.”
He added: “I would absolutely not use the term ‘freedom day’. This is not freedom day.
“I hope this is a day when people will move from feeling that their behaviours are covered by regulation to using exactly the same behaviours, through choice, in response to guidance.
“That’s what we all need to do and continue to watch closely the numbers, the data, to take up opportunities for vaccination, and to engage in other good behaviours. Things have not changed in that respect.”
However, Prof Young said the lifting of legal restrictions should be viewed as a “milestone”.
“I think all of us look on today as a little bit of a milestone, certainly in terms of the removal of regulation.
“The two years have been incredibly difficult for society, for the economy, for all of our colleagues who have been working in the health and social care system at the front line, and for patients and families, many of whom have made considerable sacrifices.
“I think we absolutely welcome the fact that ministers have decided to remove restrictions. But that does not mean that the epidemic is over.
“It’s simply not.”
Meanwhile, a bar owner said that the easing of restrictions was a good day for the hospitality industry, but said major challenges remained in rebuilding consumer confidence.
Stephen Magorrian, managing director of the Horatio Group, said: “It is to be welcomed, it is the beginning of the end.
“But we are conscious of the fact that the pandemic hasn’t ended, so we still need to be cautious but it is good to see the start of the end.”
He added: “The rebuilding of confidence will be the main thing. We need to make sure that our customers still feel safe.”
Aaron Chism, the co-owner of Belfast city centre clothes shop Fuzz Vintage, said his hope was for brighter days ahead.
He started the business in the middle of the pandemic in October 2020.
“Hopefully there’s going to be more people knocking about Belfast and they’ll feel more comfortable to go into shops and we’ll get more customers,” he told the PA news agency.
“It’s been quiet with lockdowns and stuff and then having to be closed. We opened in the middle of things before a second lockdown – it was a harsh time to open a shop but hopefully it’s going back to normal now.”
Stormont Finance Minister Conor Murphy said he wanted to get to a position where there was no need for any Covid-19 guidance.
“We look forward to a time that we can remove all restrictions, and all guidance becomes a thing of the past,” he said on Tuesday.
“But the pandemic is still going on, there are still people dying, there’s still people contracting the virus. And so there has to be a degree of caution in relation to that.”
Northern Ireland Health Minister Robin Swann confirmed on Monday that all legal restrictions in the region would be replaced by guidance from February 15.
Regulations removing the curbs from law were laid before the Stormont Assembly on Tuesday.
Mr Swann, who tested positive for coronavirus on Sunday, was advised by the attorney general last week on the potential legal complications of him replacing Covid regulations with guidance amid the current political crisis in the region.
Northern Ireland has no functioning Executive after the DUP removed Paul Givan as first minister, as part of its protest against Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol.
Ulster Unionist minister Mr Swann was concerned about acting without the wider endorsement of an Executive and he wrote to other ministers asking for their input.
The other four Executive parties supported Mr Swann in moving unilaterally to lift the restrictions.
