Lockdown extended by 3 weeks in Northern Ireland – paving way for the rest of the UK

The First Minister Arlene Foster confirmed this afternoon that the nationwide shutdown would continue and people need to remain "on their guard".

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Only essential travel will be permitted and people are urged to remain at home to limit coronavirus spread.

The four nations of the United Kingdom have been working together on the coronvirus response - and have made joint decisions so far.

Dominic Raab is expected to make an announcement tomorrow on the continued measures, and it's all but confirmed that England, Scotland and Wales will carry on with them too.

He said last week ministers "don't expect to make any changes" as the UK hasn't yet reached the peak of cases.

The measures will be reviewed again in the coming weeks, she said this afternoon, but they aren't going to do it right now, Ms Foster said today.

"We are not at that stage yet, but what we will be doing in the executive will be planning for the recovery and of course it's right that we need to plan for the recovery," she told the nation.

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill added: "Lives are being saved by these measures.

"We cannot be complacent and we must keep going for this for as long as we need to," she told the daily Stormont briefing.

"Keeping these measures in place remains a necessity."

The decision will keep the region locked down until May 9. It was made after a meeting of the top executive today.

In Northern Ireland there are just over 2,000 cases of coronavirus, and 140 deaths.

The Republic of Ireland has already extended its lockdown until May 5.

Ms Foster is expected to join the UK Government and other members of the devolved administrations at a COBRA meeting tomorrow to discuss formally extending the lockdown across all four nations.

No10 said this morning that the four devolved nations are "working very closely together" during the pandemic and it's expected that all the nations will stick to the same approach.

But they can break off and put in different measures if they want to.

It's expected that the lockdown will continue into the beginning of May at the very earliest.

The UK is on course for as many deaths as Italy at the moment, as the numbers continue to add up.

Ministers think Britain is still some days away from the peak.

A gradual approach to getting back to normal is expected, rather than reversing all the measures in one go.

But the chancellor is keen to re-open parts of the economy to avoid a complete meltdown.

A Cabinet minister specualted in the Daily Telegraph today that primary schools could go back before other age groups.

This approach was confirmed earlier by the Welsh Education Minister, Kirstie Williams.

She said this afternoon: "It's quite clear to me that when schools reopen it won't be business as usual.

"We maybe in the position of part of the school cohort going back.

"If we look at other countries in Europe it's just their youngest children.

"Some of those we'd usually see in our primary schools going back."
But she denied claims that schools could re-open as early as next week, and hinted it would be well into the summer term before anything changes.