‘Full lockdown will destroy Derry jobs’ warns Redmond McFadden as Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill issue direct COVID-19 appeal to Derry

In an open letter in today’s ‘Journal’ (page 3) Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill warn hospital admissions are ‘increasing rapidly and we must do everything we can to get on top of the situation’.

The intervention comes as the north’s Chief Scientific Adviser Prof. Ian Young warns that the disease is now circulating widely in the community in Derry and Strabane.

Also writing in today’s paper (Page 7) Prof. Young states: “In Derry and Strabane, of cases reported in the fourteen days up to October 2, 29 per cent were associated with household transmission, 16 per cent with known clusters and 55 per cent with community transmission.

“Of those cases which formed part of known clusters, more than half were acquired in the hospitality sector.”

Prof. Young notes that as community transmission increases, it becomes ‘increasingly difficult to pinpoint where individual Covid cases are acquired in most cases.’

Over the past week more than 800 people tested positive for COVID-19 in Derry and Strabane with the rate per 100,000 now up to 533.6. In total there were 804 new positive cases registered between September 28 and October 4.

Of these 353 cases were registered over the weekend: 143 on Friday; 122 on Saturday; and 88 on Sunday.

While public officials insist the new restrictions that came into effect yesterday are necessary to curb the spread of the illness business organisations say support is needed particularly for the hospitality industry.

Redmond McFadden, President of the Chamber of Commerce, also writing in today’s paper (Page 5) says everyone needs to act now to prevent a second full-scale lockdown, which would be catastrophic.

“It is not an exaggeration to say this would destroy the local economy,” is his stark warning.