Robin Swann: Hospital visits can resume – but with face coverings

Speaking at the Stormont press conference, Mr Swann said that the “hugely restrictive measures” to stop most visits had been necessary to help ensure the safety of staff and the public.

The UUP minister said he was “acutely aware that there are many families yearning to see loved ones – either in hospital, or in our care homes”.

He said that new guidance from his department would mean that in both general wards and intensive care units, one visitor will now be permitted to visit per patient at any one time.

Mr Swann, whose young son was born with a serious congenital heart defect, said that women having to attend baby scans alone was “an issue about which I have been particularly mindful in recent weeks”.

He said that such scans are “a hugely important experience, not only for the mother, but also for the father, and as such under the revised guidance birth partners will be facilitated to accompany pregnant women to scans, anomaly scans, to the induction of labour and the duration of labour, for birth, and to visit in ante-natal and post-natal wards as appropriate”.

Mr Swann said that in Covid-free care homes two people would be allowed to visit at any one time “where this can be accommodated, as long as this can be carried out safely and under the usual social distancing requirements”.

However, he stressed that all visitors will be required to wear face coverings and those with symptoms of infection – even if those symptoms are mild or unconfirmed – should not visit.