Stormont First Minister Arlene Foster has said Northern Ireland will seek a “safe and sustainable” way forward amid calls from medics to extend the region’s current lockdown and calls from the hospitality industry to reopen.
Mrs Foster said the Stormont Executive considered a “range of medical and scientific” evidence at a meeting on Thursday to discuss the lifting of restrictions due on November 13th.
She said there has been “significant progress” following three weeks of further restrictions with a drop in the number of cases, while the reproductive rate of the virus in the community had dropped to around 0.7.
However, the occupancy rate at hospitals has been reported at 100 per cent and there are currently 409 patients with Covid-19 being treated in the region's hospitals with 49 in intensive care.
“The chief scientific adviser has indicated that for our local government districts, a majority of council areas have already reached rates of 0.7 or below,” she said.
“However, the number of patients requiring treatment in our intensive care units remain high and the proportion of older people contracting Covid has been increasing, so there is still more to do to ease pressure on our health service and to save lives.
“We have one week to go with our current restrictions and we are asking people to redouble their efforts.”
Decision
A further 12 deaths were reported in the region today while 516 new cases of the virus were confirmed.
Northern Ireland has seen some 4,256 new cases of the virus over the last seven days, with 126 active outbreaks at care homes in the region.
Movement has fallen during the current lockdown, with a 57 per cent decrease in Belfast city centre.
Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said a decision will be made early next week whether restrictions can be eased.
Ms O’Neill expressed her concern that more people were currently in hospitals in Northern Ireland with Covid-19 than at any point during the first wave of the virus.
Coming at the same time as “significant levels of staff absences across the system”, she described the situation as “simply not sustainable”.
“Our objective is to keep the transmission rate as low as possible for as long as possible. We appeal to everyone to be patient, to work with us in the weeks and months ahead,” she said.
