NI lockdown: Health Minister Robin Swann to bring paper to Executive meeting on restrictions on Thursday warning ‘now is not the time to open any floodgates’

Health Minister Robin Swann confirmed that he is to bring a paper to the meeting of the Executive and, while he did not outline what measures he would be recommending, he stressed that it is “not the time to open any floodgates”.

Northern Ireland has been living under strict lockdown restrictions on gatherings since December 26, with pubs, restaurants, close-contact services, non-essential retail and other areas of the local economy shut down entirely.

The lockdown was imposed for a period of six weeks and, as things stand, is due to expire after the first week of February.

But the chief medical officer in Mr Swann’s department, Dr Michael McBride, had already outlined earlier this week a number of conditions that should be met before sociey begins to reopen – most notably a drop in the pressure on the health service and larger numbers of people vulnerable to coronavirus having been vaccinated.

Speaking at a press conference at Stormont today, Mr Swann said: “Tomorrow the Executive will be reviewing the current restrictions and I will be bringing a paper to that meeting setting out my recommendations.

“As usual I will not pre-empt those discussions but I can make clear that this is not a time to open any floodgates.

“This is not the time to take premature decisions that would lead to another spike in cases and yet more crushing pressure on our hospitals. We have to stay the course on this.”

The minister added: “There is hope because we have made a really encouraging start to our vaccination programme.”