New lockdown measures to be imposed within days - NI Executive to be told act now or full lockdown will not be enough to save hospitals

Minister Swann told the media on Wednesday that new restrictions would form part of a paper he would present to the Northern Ireland Executive on Thursday.

The paper is expected to represent an escalation in Covid-19 in Northern Ireland.

Last week, the DUP used a cross-community vote to block a proposal put forward by Health Minister Swann recommending an extension of a four week ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown to November 27, 2020

A new deal was eventually pushed through by the Executive on Friday which allowed for specific parts of the economy including close contact businesses like hairdressers and barbers and the hospitality sector to reopen in a prescribed way.

The deal was supported by the DUP, the UUP and the Alliance Party but was rejected by Sinn Fein and the SDLP abstained.

Earlier this week, First Minister and DUP leader, Arlene Foster, and DUP MP for East Antrim, Sammy Wilson, both said they would not hesitate to use the controversial cross-community again to block restrictions that they do not support from being imposed.

DUP leader in the House of Commons and MP for Lagan Valley, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, told BBC Radio Ulster programme Good Morning Ulster on Thursday morning that the “DUP would work with the Health Minister to reach a consensus”,

The spread of Covid-19 has slowed throughout Northern Ireland over the last few weeks but Chief Scientific Advisor, Professor Ian Young, told media at a press briefing on Thursday that the pace of the decrease was slowing and would possibly plateau.

Professor Young also said the R-rate (the rate at which Covid-19 is transmitted in the community) had dropped to between 0.7 and 0.9 when schools closed for an extra week during the mid-term break however, Professor Young said since schools returned the R-rate increased and is now currently at around 1.0.

There have been 889 Covid-19 related deaths and 48,229 infections in Northern Ireland since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Department of Health Covid-19 Dashboard.