Spreading of Covid restriction misinformation branded ‘disgraceful’ by Michelle O’Neill

“Times are hard enough, times are challenging enough so I would encourage everybody to take their information directly from ourselves who are elected in the Executive, the Public Health Agency and the Department of Health,” she said.

“Those that are engaged in disinformation is just shameful and it is causing confusion that people don’t need.

“We have had an assessment around where we’re at, and I think we’re probably past the peak in terms of the Delta variant. That’s good, however there is no room to be complacent.

“I have asked the question directly of the Department of Health, ‘are we doing enough right now’, and the answer to that question was that we are.

“Obviously we are concerned about this new variant, and we don’t yet know the impact of that but as things stand today I can say to you that as long as the public continue to adhere to what is being asked at this moment in time then I think that we’re sufficient.

“I think it’s going to be an uncertain period for the next number of weeks however we don’t expect, at this moment in time, to be asking people to do more.

“We’re asking people to comply and double up on all of our efforts in terms of our own personal decisions.”

Ms O’Neill was speaking to media at the Mater Hospital in Belfast following a meeting with representatives from the Royal College of Surgeons.

Asked about discussions over further coronavirus restrictions in the Republic of Ireland, Ms O’Neill said she does not believe there has been enough north-south co-ordination throughout the pandemic.

“I think that’s unfortunate and probably for a whole raft of reasons but we have always advocated an all-island approach, I think it made sense, we had an island advantage that I don’t think was properly exploited,” she said.

“We had an Executive meeting yesterday and I asked that very question directly of the Department of Health and of the Health Minister, ‘are we doing enough today’, and I was told the answer to that question is yes.

“I have always followed the advice of the chief medical officer, the chief scientific adviser, and obviously we have to be prepared to respond as is required, but for today what we’re doing is enough.

“But we need to double down on the basic messaging and asking people to make good personal choices.”

A further four deaths of patients who had tested positive for Covid-19 have been reported.

Another 1,908 cases of the virus were also notified in NI. Yesterday morning there were 326 Covid-positive patients in hospital - 30 in intensive care.

Forty deaths linked to Covid-19 have been recorded in the latest weekly update. The figure represents a drop in the weekly toll, down from 44 in the previous week, according to data compiled by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra). The latest deaths, in the week ending November 26, take the number of virus-linked fatalities recorded by Nisra to 3,881.

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