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In Northern Ireland, more than 100 fines were imposed for violations of coronavirus regulations and 34 ban notices were issued during house parties on New Year’s Eve.
As the night passed quietly with empty streets in most cities and towns, PSNI agents responded to 1,004 calls regarding reports of antisocial behavior, assault, safety concerns, criminal damages, missing persons and traffic collisions.
This included 86 reports of domestic abuse in homes in Northern Ireland, resulting in 38 arrests.
In terms of coronavirus regulations, officials issued 126 fines of £ 200 each, as well as 34 ban notices in response to house parties and two penalty notices for companies that continued to operate.
Deputy Chief of Police Mark McEwan expressed his disappointment at the events that occurred despite the strict rules in place to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Stormont introduced the tough new measures last week in response to the growing number of cases, which have continued to post record increases.
Northern Ireland will not update its Covid-19 figures again until tomorrow, but the deaths of 11 people were confirmed yesterday along with 1,929 new infections.
“It is truly disappointing that despite the health crisis due to the deadly virus, there were still people last night who deliberately decided to violate the regulations and put themselves and others at risk,” said Deputy Chief McEwan.
He also expressed concern about the number of reports of domestic abuse.
“Unfortunately, we know that domestic abuse doesn’t just happen at Christmas, it happens all year long. Historically, however, the figures show that incidents of domestic abuse increase during the Christmas period,” he said.
“We also know that during this pandemic more people have been and will continue to spend more time at home than they normally would.
“The combined impact of this pandemic and the holiday season will have made things very difficult for people who are abused and, in some situations, even worse.”
Meanwhile, Britain today recorded another 53,285 laboratory-confirmed coronavirus cases, with another 613 deaths.
This was below a new record of 55,892 reported cases yesterday, the highest since mass testing began in late May.
British Education Secretary Gavin Williamson confirmed today that all of London’s primary schools will remain closed next week as the city battles high levels of coronavirus infections.
The measure is expected to see similar arrangements in the spring closing when schools continued to accept children from key worker families, but offered online learning for the vast majority of students.
London colleges and universities had already been told to close most students for the first two weeks of January.
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