Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
WEAR MASK UNTIL 2022
First Minister sets out Covid winter plan
WEARING face masks in crowded indoor settings will continue to be the law for the next few months at least.
First Minister Paul Givan told MLAS in Stormont yesterday that the restrictions would continue and that Covid status certs were a possibility if cases continue to rise.
But setting out the Executive’s Autumn/winter Covid Contingency Plan, Mr Givan said if everybody follows the rules the public can look forward fewer restrictions than before.
Delivering a statement at Stormont, he said: “We start with the need to keep sectors open to the fullest possible extent and hopefully in totality.
“Our schools and further education sectors are back and we will want to protect that along with protecting our health service.
“We want to keep our businesses and leisure sectors open and we want to minimise impacts on citizens over the coming months.”
The Assembly heard that just over 82% of people aged 12 and above in Northern Ireland have received one dose of the vaccine.
Mr Givan said a new public information campaign will be launched at the end of October.
He added: “While the importance of personal responsibility cannot be overstated, we have retained some baseline measures.
“These include the retention of a legal requirement for face coverings in crowded indoor settings, the retention of a focus on flexible and hybrid working to reduce the number of social contacts that take place in work settings, the continuing legal requirement for risk assessments to be carried out in certain settings, and for visitor and attendee details to be recorded to support the work of the test, trace and protect system.”
And the First Minister warned that additional measures, including the use of Covid status certificates, could be introduced if hospital pressures “become unsustainable”.
He added: “We are very mindful that the Covid pandemic has been with us for 19 months and we appreciate that it has been incredibly difficult for everyone.
“We have adopted a cautious approach to the relaxation of restrictions as we have sought to carefully balance the health and wellbeing of our citizens with societal, community and economic considerations.
“The autumn/winter plan is a continuation of this approach.
“The efforts that have been made by so many in recent months to drive up vaccination rates and step up compliance with mitigations do seem to be working. It is vital that we don’t let up, we must maintain our focus and collective endeavour.
“If we all do our part, we can look forward to an autumn/winter period with fewer restrictions than at any time during the pandemic.”
Figures released yesterday by the Department of Health stated that there had been 1,367 positive cases and eight deaths reported in the previous 24 hours.