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Ministerial talks continued Tuesday night in Stormont on formulating a response to the increasing incidence of Covid-19 in Northern Ireland, with seven more deaths and 863 cases of the virus reported.
The latest figures bring the total number of coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic to 598 and the total number of positive cases to 21,898.
In the past seven days, 6,286 people tested positive for coronavirus, nearly 900 a day.
There are now 150 people in Northern Ireland hospitals receiving treatment for Covid-19, 23 in intensive care units and 15 on ventilators.
By far the highest incidence of the disease is in the Derry and Strabane council area which, over the past week, saw 970 cases per 100,000 residents.
This is more than double the incidence of the next highest area, Belfast, which is experiencing 462 cases per 100,000, followed by Middle Ulster with 401 cases per 100,000.
The lowest number of cases is found in the central and eastern council area of Antrim (95 cases per 100,000) and Ards and North Down (135 cases per 100,000).
Disagreement
Faced with this increase in deaths and cases, the North Executive was supposed to meet on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the imposition of greater restrictions, but due to disagreement this was postponed until Tuesday night.
Instead, according to sources, the Stormont ministers sought to reach a joint compromise on restrictions before calling a formal executive meeting to ratify the new proposals.
The sources said that Northern scientific and medical directors, Dr. Michael McBride and Professor Ian Young, had recommended an impending lockdown period of four to six weeks with an additional similar lockdown in the new year.
With the R number, the number of people to whom each infected person transmits the virus, between 1.3 and 1.8, Dr. McBride and Professor Young urged that steps be taken to reduce the number below one .
They argued, according to Stormont sources, that to achieve this figure the hospitality sector should be severely restricted and / or schools closed for a period of up to six weeks.
They said the R number could not be lowered below one if both sectors remained fully open, the sources added.
Financial concerns
Sources said Sinn Féin was pushing for a stricter closure while the DUP wanted schools to remain open, and it was also concerned about how stricter regulations would affect the economy.
Prior to the executive meeting, Prime Minister Arlene Foster told the Northern Assembly that ministers were “collectively very concerned about the increase in broadcasting in Northern Ireland.”
“While of course we have to stop the rise of Covid-19, and that of course is something that concerns us all, it is important that we take a proportionate and balanced approach,” he said.
“Some people have said that it is about health versus wealth, I think it is a completely false analysis. Our own medical director in May of this year pointed out that poverty kills and unemployment also kills.
“So it is a balancing act between making sure that we deal with Covid-19 but that we also try to protect our economy, that we try to protect our society as we know it, and indeed family life as we know it. So these are important decisions. None of that is easy, ”he added.
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