Home visiting restrictions extended across the North

PEOPLE from different households cannot mix indoors unless they are in a social bubble after increased restrictions were extended across the North today.

First Minister Arlene Foster said that restrictions announced for certain postcodes last week will now apply across the North.

An unscheduled Executive meeting was called on Monday afternoon in response to rising Covid-19 cases over the weekend.

The restrictions that are now in place are:

• No mixing of households in private dwellings, with exemptions for: bubbling with one other household; caring responsibilities including childcare; building or maintenance work or the services of any trade or profession; a business operating from home; supported living arrangements; visits required for legal or medical purposes; a funeral; a house move; or a marriage or civil partnerships where one partner is terminally ill.
• No more than six people to gather in a private garden from no more than two households.

Speaking at today’s (Monday) announcement, First Minister Arlene Foster said doing nothing was not an option but neither was returning to a full lockdown.

Mrs Foster added that restrictions are limited and said “we are in a better place than at the height of the pandemic.”

Chief Scientific Officer Ian Young said the North is now averaging well over 100 new cases per day and the R rate is currently at 1.4 and in some places stands at two.