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Reuters
NI’s coronavirus case rate per 100,000 population is the highest in the UK
Northern Ireland’s health minister has said that “concrete action” is now necessary to stop the spread of Covid-19.
Robin Swann said he would recommend that the executive tighten restrictions when ministers meet on Thursday.
He said decisions would be required on whether it would apply to Northern Ireland as a whole or to more localized areas, with higher rates of the virus.
He said he was confident ministers would agree to action now, hoping to avoid further restrictions later.
Northern Ireland’s current case rate is 35 per 100,000 inhabitants, well above the level at which the UK has imposed quarantine restrictions on other countries, which was a rate higher than 20 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
“To be frank, if a foreign country had our figures, we would be quarantining anyone who came back from us,” Swann said at a Stormont briefing.
Chief Scientific Officer Professor Ian Young said there was not an area of Northern Ireland where the virus had not struck in recent weeks.
He said the numbers had risen sharply as had the positive tests, and more people in older age groups were beginning to test positive.
‘More evidence is not the explanation’
The seven-day moving average of cases has risen from about four per day in early July to 90, a twenty-fold increase.
Testing has increased fivefold since early July, when less than 0.5% of tests were positive on a seven-day moving average.
That has now risen to just under 2% of tests, or 1 in 50.
Professor Young said that at times the number had been higher than 3%.
That clearly indicates, he said, an increase in the epidemic and an increase in community transmission.
Medical director Michael McBride called on students to be careful, as many commute home on weekends.
When asked if council areas or zip codes could be used to introduce restrictions, the health minister said there would be “broad discussion” at Thursday’s executive meeting.
There have been several local closures in parts of England and Scotland, when public health officials felt the numbers were reaching a level where action was needed to prevent them from spiraling out of control.
