Eamonn McCann joins calls for cancellation of St. Patrick's Day parade in Derry amid coronavirus outbreak

"We have no information available to us which wasn’t available to Belfast and other councils. There is no reason to believe that the issues in Derry are or will be any different to the issues applying elsewhere.

"Nobody wants to be a kill-joy, but none of us should be foolhardy either. This is a time to err on the side of caution. Better safe than sorry," he said.

An emergency meeting to discuss cancelling the St. Patrick’s Day events in Derry and Strabane is due to take place at around 12 noon today

Colr. McCann said: "Few of us have the medical expertise to judge what restrictions would be reasonable or necessary. We must ensure that governments do not take an opportunity to make temporary restrictions on free movement and freedom of assembly assembly permanent. We know on this island how easily this can happen."

The PEople Before Profit Councillor

Our priority in People Before Profit will be to try to ensure that nobody falls victim to the virus, or exposes others to infection, because they cannot afford to self-isolate. Will workers on Zero Hours contracts have their incomes guaranteed, for example? Or those in precarious work generally, who might be tempted to go into work because they cannot afford to stay home and lose pay?

The trades union movement should be at the ready to intervene if there’s any attempt to make workers pay the price of this emergency.