What exactly is anti-vaccine passport outfit Liberty NI – the group behind today’s petition?

Click here for details: DUP MLA: Vaccine passports are cruel, disgusting, abhorrent and discrimination of the worst kind

But the public-facing materials produced by the group – on social media, its statements to the press, and on its own website (libertyni.org) – say almost nothing about the organisation.

The News Letter this evening telephoned its spokesman, who was not keen to publicly share the identities of those who are leading the group, including his own.

But he told the News Letter that despite the high-profile support of DUP man Paul Frew, the group cuts across political boundaries and involves people from both loyalist and republican backgrounds.

He also said the group is not anti-vaccination per se, and its supporters are both vaccinated and unvaccinated.

“If people want to take the vaccine, they’re entitled to do it,” he said.

Rather, the spokesman added, “our main focus is freedom of choice”.

He said the organisers had been “really scared” by the developments in continental Europe, where some countries have been moving towards mandatory vaccines (like Austria) or fines for the unvaccinated (like Greece).

Asked if Liberty NI as a group would encourage people to break the law, he said no.

Instead, he added: “We want the law to work properly.”

A further four people who previously tested positive for Covid-19 in NI died, the Department of Health said.

Another 3,295 confirmed cases of the virus were also recorded in the latest 24-hour reporting period. On Monday morning, there were 394 Covid-positive patients in hospital, with 28 in intensive care.

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