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» Minister’s regret at Executive role » 2,768 deaths Covid-related: NISRA

POLITICKING and disputes within the Executive cost lives during the pandemic, Robin Swann has claimed.

The Health Minister said the Covid-19 response was damaged on several occasions in the past 12 months when members of the fiveparty coalition failed to deliver a unified message.

Mr Swann, an Ulster Unionist, was reflecting on the devolved administration’s handling of the crisis ahead of the one-year anniversary of the first cases being confirmed in the region.

While he did not single out parties by name in the interview with BBC NI, the pandemic response has been marked by a number of high-profile disputes involving the Executive’s two main parties, the DUP and Sinn Fein.

Sinn Fein faced heavy criticism from all other Executive parties when its leadership was among thousands who attended the funeral of senior republican Bobby Storey in West Belfast last summer, at a time when strict limitations on such events were in place. Later in the year, the

DUP was criticised by other Executive members when it deployed a contentious voting mechanism to veto stricter lockdown measures proposed by Mr Swann.

He added: “The politicking has been damaging and challenging to the message that we’ve been trying to put out to the people of Northern Ireland at various times.

“I think some of the decisions that were taken, if they had been taken at a different speed, at a different time, would have had a CLAIM Mr Swann different direction and would have saved lives and would have made a difference.

“I have no doubt about that in regards to when we see certain reactions and certain decisions that saw an increase in positive Covid cases, which lead to hospitalisations and additional deaths.

“But those were challenges that were not just made in Northern

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Ireland, those were political challenges and political decisions that were made by every government as they combated Covid.

“There’s been a number of occasions, and I think they’re well documented, where political discussions and distractions that either delayed a decision being made, or crosscommunity voting was taken in certain instances, as well, that had an impact and an unfortunate impact on our reaction to Covid.”

Mr Swann acknowledged that all his Executive colleagues wanted to “do the right thing” but he stressed the need for unity.

He said: “One of the strengths that we’ve had in Northern Ireland in combating Covid was when we were all standing on the same platform, the same political platform, with the same message.” Meanwhile, more than 2,700 deaths here have been listed as “Covid-related”, figures released yesterday show.

The weekly bulletin from the Northern Ireland Statistics and

Research Agency revealed 61 deaths involving Covid-19 occurred in the week from February 13 to 19, bringing the total up to 2,768.

Of them, 1,802 (65.1%) took place in hospital, 753 (27.2%) in care homes, 13 (0.5%) in hospices and 200 (7.2) at residential addresses or other locations.

The comparable number of deaths reported daily by the Department of Health to February 19 was 2,026.

Its figures are based on people having tested positive for Covid prior to their death. NISRA numbers are based on the information entered on death certificates completed by medical professionals.

Yesterday, the department reported two more deaths, taking the overall toll to 2,050. A further 241 cases brought the total to 112,173 since the start of the pandemic.