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A “circuit breaker” lockout to curb Covid-19 in Northern Ireland is almost inevitable if the sharp increase in the incidence of coronavirus cases in the North continues, a senior medical adviser warned.
Dr. Gerry Waldron of the Northern Public Health Agency made his remarks on Sunday, a day when the Northern Health Department reported an additional 462 confirmed cases of Covid-19, bringing the total number of cases up. at 14,074.
One more death was reported, bringing the death toll to 584. On Saturday, the department reported 726 new confirmed cases in its daily bulletin, with an additional death from Covid-19. This means that there were 1,188 additional new cases on Saturday and Sunday in the north.
While these daily numbers are below the record number of 934 positive tests reported on Friday, they are causing great concern to doctors and senior politicians.
Northern Finance Minister Conor Murphy said that the Northern Executive might have to consider a strict blocking of the “circuit breaker”, adding that it would be preferable for this to happen on all islands.
In total, in the last seven days there have been 3,289 confirmed cases of the virus in the north, with 733 of them in the Belfast council area, 731 in the Derry and Strabane area, 521 in Newry, Morne and Down and 266 in Mid -Ulster.
While the number of cases is high, the number of patients in the hospital is relatively low, although health experts cited a lag between the increase in cases and hospital admissions.
On Sunday 75 patients were receiving hospital treatment for Covid-19, nine of them in intensive care units and seven with ventilators.
Dr. Waldron said that with the increase in cases in recent days, the “circuit breaker” was being “considered and discussed”, and the North Executive would be examining whether such a measure was necessary.
Such a circuit breaker measure is likely to be a two- to three-week period of heavy restrictions to try to limit the spread of Covid-19.
“If the numbers continue to rise as we have seen, I think it is almost inevitable that that is the direction in which we will go,” he told the BBC.
“We will have to prepare and see how things unfold over the next few days and next week,” added Dr. Waldron.
Halloween measurements
It is understood that the Executive is considering a two or three week lockdown around Halloween at the end of the month.
Murphy said that if it was apparent that local restrictions, such as those currently in place in the Derry and Strabane area, do not reduce the infection rate, the Executive would have to consider stricter options, including the circuit breaker.
“In the next week or two, if we are not seeing a serious reduction relative to that, then we will have to consider additional steps,” he said.
Murphy said he would prefer, if such a measure were necessary, that it be applied across the island and that it would also happen in Britain.
“We have to look across the island also because a measure like that, which will be severe enough to come into effect, has to be one that crosses the entire island because, as we know, the virus does not respect borders,” he said. she told the BBC.
The Assembly member from Newry and Armagh said it was logical that such a blockade should be applied in Britain and Ireland to be more effective.
“The border is very, very fluid. If you have a set of restrictions on one side of the border and not the other, that weakens the impact of those restrictions, ”he said.
“Similarly, there is a lot of traffic between this island and Great Britain, so having the most effective circuit breaker … would be most effective if it was right on the other side of these islands.”
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