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No more than six people from two households in the affected areas can gather in a private garden.
Covid-19 localized restrictions announced for parts of Northern Ireland have been made legally enforceable.
New areas in the Lisburn and Castlereagh council area have been added to the list of areas affected by the restrictions.
It was previously announced that the rules would apply to the Belfast, Ballymena, BT28, BT29 and BT43 council area.
It is understood that the NI Executive requested that the new areas be added to cover the population links and travel routes.
East Belfast MP Gavin Robinson, who represents newly affected areas like Dundonald, tweeted that “clarity” was needed as to whether it was the Health Minister who had decided to impose stricter restrictions on the area or whether the decision had been taken at an executive meeting.
New rules have been introduced to limit the spread of the virus.
An interactive map, available on the NI Direct website and expected to be updated weekly, shows which areas are under the new regulations.
The department has also published a list of more than 10,000 zip codes affected by the new regulations; many of them are in areas that the department had not previously announced as included in the renewed restrictions.
The department has said that more zip codes can now be added or removed as the spread pattern changes.
The regulations apply to anyone who lives in the listed areas.
They allow no more than six people to gather in a private garden of no more than two households and rule out any mix of households in private dwellings, with a few exceptions.
The exceptions are:
- Bubbling with another home
- Responsibilities of care, including child care
- Construction or maintenance work or the services of any trade or profession.
- A business that operates from home
- Supported living arrangements
- Visits required for legal or medical reasons
- A funeral
- A house move
- A marriage or civil partnerships in which one of the spouses is terminally ill
There is also travel guidance, which is not legally enforceable.
Previously, the Department of Health confirmed two more deaths and 129 new cases of Covid-19 in its latest figures.
The department’s death toll, which counts people who died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, is now 573.
Not on the edge of a knife
Health Minister Robin Swann said the decision to introduce localized restrictions “was not taken lightly”.
“Keeping the population safe and healthy is my top priority and to limit the spread of Covid-19 we must restrict person-to-person contact, particularly within restricted areas.”
At a briefing in Stormont, he said that “there should be no complacency in other parts of Northern Ireland” and cautioned that restrictions could be introduced elsewhere.
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Robin Swann announced new localized restrictions last week
“The restrictions can and will be extended to other ZIP codes if necessary. I want to make it clear that I will not hesitate to tighten restrictions if necessary.”
He added that NI is “on the razor’s edge” and that “other ways could have been found to reduce contacts between people and they too would have had their challenges.”
When asked why people can meet in a pub or restaurant but not in a house, Swann replied that “contacts in public places can be managed and structured.”
“There are no easy answers to this situation we are facing.
“I don’t want to restrict anyone’s daily movements and I certainly don’t want to go back to another confinement but, in the same way, I’m not going to stay in my hands and hope for the best when our Covid-19 rates are rising rapidly.”
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