LOCK OF THE IRISH
Circuit breaker lockdown: N. Ireland to have 4 WEEKS of restrictions with schools, pubs & restaurants closed from Friday
NORTHERN Ireland will be plunged into a four-week circuit breaker lockdown with pubs and restaurants all to close from Friday.
Schools will close for half of the four-week period, extending the half-term holiday, the while restaurants and bars will only be able to offer takeaways.
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First Minister Arlene Foster has said a circuit breaker lockdown, which will come into force on Friday, are "critical" to avoid "long term" school closures.
Schools will be closed from next Monday for two weeks and will reopen on November 2.
She said: "Hospital admissions are on the increase, this is deeply troubling, and more steps are more urgently needed."
Pubs and restaurants will have to shut this weekend, except where they are providing takeaways or deliveries.
Off-licences will also have to close at 8pm.
But shops will be allowed to stay open, along with gyms for individual training.
Churches will be allowed to stay open with a 25-guest limit on funerals and weddings.
People are still able to meet up with people in their "social bubble" with a maximum of ten people.
And no one is allowed to stay overnight unless they are part of the bubble.
The circuit breaker lockdown has been timed to fall over the half-term holiday, so kids in Northern Ireland only miss a week of lessons.
Ms Foster said making it fall over the half-term break would "minimise" the loss in learning for kids.
She said: "Fundamentally the education of young people is a right, and their life chances need to be protected."
And the Northern Irish leader stressed that these measures are "time limited" and would not go on for longer than four weeks.
The Derry and Strabane Council area has been experiencing the highest infection rate in the UK and Ireland, with a seven-day average of 970 cases per 100,000 people.
It comes as Boris Johnson faces increasing pressure to introduce a similar lockdown in England to stop the spread of coronavirus.
And Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford has warned Wales could close the borer to England if people aren't banned from leaving high-risk areas.
Ms Foster made the statement today during a special sitting of the Assembly in Belfast later today.
She said: "We fully appreciate this will be difficult and worrying news for a lot of people, the executive has taken this decision because it is necessary.
";We want these measures to have two impacts, firstly on the Covid transmission rates which must be turned down now or we will be in a very difficult place very soon.
"We believe it marks a point where everyone, each and every one of us, can take stock and go back to the social distancing measures that is vitally important."
Restrictions on household mixing are expected to remain as they are, but no 'tier' system is in place like in England.
No mixing of households in private dwellings, with exceptions including those joined in social bubbles, is currently allowed.
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After the late night executive meeting concluded, deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill tweeted: "The Exec has given painstaking consideration to next steps.
"We know this is hard and that people will be worried about their livelihoods, but we will do everything we possibly can to make sure there are protections in place for businesses, workers and families."
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