Coronavirus: Elderly people in NI to be asked to self-isolate for up to four months - to protect themselves

Health Minister Matt Hancock said: “The measures that we’re taking, the measures that we’re looking at taking are very, very significant and they will disrupt the ordinary lives of almost everybody in the country in order to tackle this virus.”

He also confirmed that ministers were seeking to give police powers to arrest and forcibly quarantine people who are sick with the virus but are not self-isolating, powers which PSNI chief constable Simon Byrne recently called for.

“We are going to take the powers to make sure that we can quarantine people if they are a risk to public health, yes, and that’s important,” Mr Hancock told the Andrew Marr Show on the BBC.

“I doubt that actually we will need to use it much, because people have been very responsible.”

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