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Northern Ireland can avoid a “circuit breaker” lockdown if people adhere to the latest coronavirus restrictions imposed by Stormont, the Prime Minister said.
Arlene Foster spoke after the stricter Covid-19 restrictions on family reunions went into effect in Northern Ireland.
The measure affects indoor and outdoor domestic gatherings and does not apply to the retail or hotel sectors.
These reinforced restrictions respond to the sharp increase in the infection rate in Northern Ireland in recent weeks.
Ms Foster said she could not rule out imposing a two-week lockdown to halt the spread of the virus in the region, insisting that it was up to the public to prevent it.
She insisted that such a move would be at the end of the additional options that the executive has open.
The so-called circuit breaker blockade will be among the measures discussed by ministers at the next meeting of the power-sharing executive on Thursday.
“I hope we don’t have to get to a circuit breaker because it’s a pretty big problem,” Ms. Foster said.
“It’s a new phrase in our vocabulary that has been introduced and it essentially means that you would have a complete lockdown for a limited period of time.
“What we’re trying to tell people is to work with us now on these limited restrictions and if they do, we may not have to get into a situation where we have to take other incremental steps.
“Of course, the circuit breaker will be towards the end of those steps, because it would be a blockage that would affect the whole of society.”
She added: “I don’t think it’s inevitable at all. That’s the point I’m making. I’m saying that if people work with us, listen to the messages, and really change their behavior, then we can stop this without the need to go. to a circuit breaker and that’s certainly where I want to be. “
Deputy Prime Minister Michelle O’Neill said a circuit breaker was one of the “tools” available to the executive.
“The circuit break issue has been discussed and I think it is something that the executive is going to have to consider, along with a whole range of measures,” said the northern leader of Sinn Féin.
“We have said that on Thursday we will discuss what potential tools we have, when we would potentially implement them, and then we will communicate that to the public.
“So I think all of those things should be in the mix.”
O’Neill also acknowledged that Stormont’s latest Covid-19 message has gotten confusing.
The deputy prime minister accepted that the introduction of region-wide restrictions on national gatherings just hours before the reopening of bars that do not serve food seemed “contradictory.”
However, both leaders insisted that there was strong scientific evidence to justify the contrasting steps.
They emphasized that pubs provided more controlled environments where social distancing and infection control measures could be regulated and enforced.
They said the data indicated that rising infection rates were linked to transmission in homes and that was why Stormont had moved to prevent different households from gathering indoors.
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Today 75 new cases of Covid-19 were reported in Northern Ireland, from tests on 2,360 people.
Brings the cumulative total of positive results to 9,541.
There are no more deaths, so the official Health Department total remains at 577.
There are 36 coronavirus patients in the hospital, with five in intensive care.
Northern Ireland now has the highest rate of Covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants of any part of the UK, with more than a thousand new cases in the last seven days.
Under the new rules, there will be no mixing of indoor households, with a few exceptions, and outdoor gatherings in private gardens will be limited to six people from no more than two households.
The police will have the power to impose fines for any breach of the regulations.
More restrictions, including earlier closing times for restaurants and pubs, will be considered when the Stormont Executive meets Thursday.
Meanwhile, a virologist at Queen’s University in Belfast has said that Northern Irish cities, including Newry and Derry, have tripled the number of positive cases of the Covid-19 virus in the past two weeks.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Dr. David Courtney said that the Northern Ireland Executive’s decision to further restrict the movement is the right decision and should go further to restrict business activity.
Dr. Courtney said the increase in cases is related to the opening of schools and universities and that the increased restrictions should “help control it.”
He said that people under the age of 18 accounted for only 10% of positive cases in the first months of the pandemic, but in the last seven days it has risen to 25% in this age profile.
This suggests that it is related to greater interaction between young people in their schools.
In Belfast, Derry and Newry, the virus reproduction, or R number, has risen to about 2, and Dr. Courtney said the rate in these places has been nearly 80 cases per 100,000 per day over the past week.
In Newry and Derry this is equivalent to tripling the positive cases from the previous week, he said.
Dr Courtney said this was to be expected and that Northern Ireland will have “a seesaw approach and deal with the bumps” by using restraints where necessary.
He said that hospital occupancy is 85% but the number of deaths has not risen in the same way.
By continuing to observe social distance, wearing masks and washing their hands, he said that people could try to prevent the virus from spreading to the elderly population.
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