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Northern Ireland Deputy Minister Michelle O’Neill said she would like to see the Stormont Executive post its plans to get out of the Covid-19 related restrictions on Thursday.
The power-sharing body began its discussions yesterday on how it could ease some of the emergency provisions.
Ms O’Neill said the virus should be addressed across the island and that she wanted to see alignment with the measures released by the Irish government last week.
The disease, added Sinn Fein’s deputy director, is moving through Ireland in the same way.
She was speaking at the Bloc Blinds factory in Magherafelt, Co Derry, where the staff makes personal protective equipment for health workers.
But, at the daily coronavirus briefing in Belfast, Northern Ireland Health Minister Robin Swann warned against complacency and said any changes to the restrictions would be gradual.
“I am becoming increasingly concerned. I am concerned that the debate on the future of the blockade is moving forward.”
“It is getting ahead of the reality that people still face.
“Tragedy after tragedy would accumulate if Northern Ireland were lost at this stage.”
“We need to stick to what we are doing to continue saving lives.”
Meanwhile, the medical director said it will be several weeks before it is safe to ease the blockade of Northern Ireland’s coronavirus.
Dr. Michael McBride said: “We just have to make sure we don’t give mixed messages at this time.
“I would be reluctant to establish an artificial time frame for those decisions prematurely.”
Covid-19’s death toll in Northern Ireland has risen from 17 to 404, the latest figures show.
A total of 3,881 cases of the virus have been confirmed.
Dr. McBride said: “People are tired and we still have several weeks left before we are in a position where I think the evidence suggests that it would be safe to drop any of these measures without seeing that R number (the number of people who each person infected with the virus) increases and we return to that situation where we had exponential growth. “
“It’s about sequencing these steps and evaluating the impact that has on the R number,” he said.
“Putting dates on that right now would be very challenging, some might say is speculative as we just don’t know what impact the relaxation of current measures would have on how the virus is spreading.”
Dr. McBride added: “Now is not the time to confuse the public with the discussion about easing the measures.”
He said it was not yet safe to ease movement restrictions and added: “We have work to do in terms of planning.”
Additional PA report
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