Pubs and restaurants close their doors for four weeks as new Covid-19 restrictions take effect

Updated 3 hours ago

PUBS AND RESTAURANTS have closed their doors in Northern Ireland tonight as the new Covid-19 restrictions take effect.

Under the measures that went into effect at 6 p.m., all pubs and restaurants must close for four weeks, with the exception of take-out meals and deliveries.

The series of new restrictions were agreed by the Northern Ireland Executive on Wednesday in a bid to stem an alarming increase in cases in recent weeks.

The Northern Ireland Department of Health announced this afternoon that another 1,299 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in the last 24 hours. Two other deaths have also been reported.

Tonight, Deputy Prime Minister Michelle O’Neill spoke with Taoiseach Micheál Martin and discussed the situation across the island.

“This virus does not recognize borders and determined efforts must be made to maximize North-South cooperation and common action in the future,” she said on twitter.

Last night, Prime Minister Arlene Foster said she respectfully disagrees with a leading medical body’s assessment that the new restrictions for Northern Ireland are “too small, too late”.

Arlene Foster was responding to a claim by the British Medical Association NI that only a complete lockdown could have prevented the healthcare service from falling off the edge of a Covid cliff.

She said: “I say that because I not only have to look at the health outcomes on these issues, but, of course, the economic outcomes, the social outcomes, the education of our youth … and therefore I think that that we presented It was an action plan that was combined to try to address all those problems, without taking a minute off the enormous challenge that we have in front of all of us in relation to Covid-19. “

Other restrictions

Beginning Monday, schools will be closed for two weeks through November 2, with one of these weeks covering the mid-term Halloween break.

Universities are recommended to offer distance education with only essential face-to-face learning.

Outside of licenses and supermarkets it will not be allowed to sell alcohol after 8pm.

Retail will remain open and gyms will also remain open, but only for individual training. No indoor sports or organized contact sports that involve mixing will be allowed at home, except at the elite level.

Wedding ceremonies and funerals will be limited to 25 people with no subsequent receptions or gatherings.

Current restrictions on household mixing remain in place, which means that households can no longer be mixed within private households. No more than six people from two households can meet in a private garden.

A ‘bubble’ is still allowed to form, which means that one household can have close contact with another household. It should now be limited to 10 people total.

There are also exemptions to private domestic childcare restrictions, which will remain in effect.

With reports from Sean Murray and the Press Association