Sir Jeffrey Donaldson demand on health staff testing turns heat on Robin Swann

Sir Jeffrey restated his party’s position that continual lockdowns are a surefire “path to poverty” after Robin Swann indicated he will request the imposition of further curbs between now and Christmas.

Speaking on the BBC’s ‘Sunday Politics’, Mr Swann did not spell out the precise detail of what those might involve, but the DUP’s response reinforces its position that it will resist further efforts to clamp down on business as December 25 draws nearer.

The remarks over the weekend come after a fraught week of infighting between government ministers over renewed lockdown meausres.

Sir Jeffrey said: “A cycle of opening and shutting the doors of businesses is not the long-term answer to protecting our hospitals, but is the sure and certain path to poverty for low-income families.”

He added: “It makes no sense that eight months into this pandemic, there is no rapid and mass testing of health service staff or in care homes.

“This should be a daily occurrence. Before every shift on our wards and our care homes, the staff should be tested.”

The deaths of a further nine people with Covid-19 were announced yesterday by Mr Swann’s department.

The death toll recorded by Mr Swann’s department now stands at 855 – although the NI Statistics and Research Agency, which uses a slightly more lax interpretation of what counts as a “Covid-linked death”, puts the death toll at 1,105.

Neither it nor the Department of Health record whether a person died of Covid, as opposed to dying with Covid.

Yesterday, the occupancy rate across NI’s hospitals fell from 98% to 94%. There were 415 Covid-19 inpatients in hospitals, and 49 in intensive care.

Following Mr Swann’s announcement that he expects to apply for more restrictions on the Province in the coming weeks, Sir Jeffrey said last night: “We must take a balanced and proportionate approach which protects life and also family livelihoods, so they are able to put food on the table and presents under the Christmas tree, and not ignore the devastating impact of poverty.”

As well as calling for daily tests of medical staff, he also urged Mr Swann to “make a statement to the Assembly tomorrow [Monday] and detail how the summer months were used to ready our hospitals for the winter surge”.

Turning to care homes, he said: “On October 12, there were 46 care homes with Covid-19 outbreaks, yet on November 12 that number had risen exponentially to 143.

“All at a time when hospitality and close contact services were closed. Testing is amongst the best answers to combat spread within our health service and protect the vulnerable on our wards.”

He also said an “urgent plan” is needed to cope with an impending “tsunami” of mental health patients, whose conditions have been aggravated by lockdown.