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The stark warning comes as First Minister Arlene Foster says NI will exit its current ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown on November 13 — despite England announcing a lockdown until at least December 2.

Dr McBride spoke to CoolFM at the weekend on the of our 4-week circuit-breaker lockdown.

In the interview he said: “The executive faces very difficult choices.

“We will look at the evidence and we will advise on the basis of the evidence and then the executive will have to make the choices which balance up the needs of our health service, to manage the number of people with covid and also to continue to provide covid care and to ensure we minimise the impact on lives and lives lost.

“But also to minimise the impact on wider society and on the economy because all these things are interlinked.”

He added: “But let’s be clear, we all realise how important the education of our children is. We all recognise the price that young people have paid to date in terms of their education and future emplyment opportunities.

“But it will not be possible to keep R below 1 with a return to schools and with hospitality open.

“It is just not going to be possible to do that.

“That’s the sort of difficulyt dilemmas the executive will face.”

READ - DUP declines chance to deny that there is a split with Sinn Fein about ending lockdown

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Chief medical officer Dr Michael McBride warns ‘it will not be possible to keep R below 1 with a return to schools and with hospitality open’