A six-week lockdown would be disastrous for Northern Ireland

Many people will have woken up to claims, broadcast on the Stephen Nolan Show, that Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride is advocating a six-week Northern Ireland-wide lockdown as a means of curbing the surge in Covid-19 cases.

As cases climbed exponentially over the last fortnight it was inevitable that Stormont would implement more restrictions but nothing on this kind of disastrous scale had been touted until now.

It is suggested that the hospitality industry – pubs, restaurants and cafes – would feel the brunt of any lockdown, but this seems grossly unfair when all the indications are that the outbreaks in the likes of Derry and Strabane Council area and greater Belfast are as a result of rules on household gatherings being flagrantly ignored.

Dr McBride is yet to speak publicly on the claims, but any move towards a lockdown of that scale should be resisted. A two-week ‘circuit-breaker’, which had been widely touted in recent weeks, would have been bad enough, but as Simon Hamilton, chief executive of the Belfast Chamber warned yesterday, a six-week lockdown would send many businesses over the edge.

There is also the question of schools, which Dr McBride wants to be part of a lockdown. It is incredible that school closures could even be back on the table, especially as the idea was rejected by ministers in the Republic.

Education Minister Peter Weir, and First Minister Arlene Foster are thankfully opposed to any school closures.

But the concern is the attitude of the other parties, with some understood to want schools to be part of the lockdown. All of the ministers, including the Health Minister Robin Swann, should be open about their views on schools and whether they would advocate an unpalatable return to an education shutdown. The silence on this yesterday was disturbing.