Coronavirus: Cafes and restaurants 'to reopen with no alcohol'

The executive is expected to agree a partial reopening of the hospitality sector but keep alcohol-only pubs closed for a further fortnight.

Ministers will meet to finalise the plan on Monday morning.

The first minister had said the current coronavirus restrictions would end at midnight on Thursday but a compromise appears to have been reached.

Hospitality Ulster has urged the executive to allow the entire sector to reopen to save the economy.

Pubs, restaurants and cafes across Northern Ireland closed their doors to sit-in customers on Friday 17 October under stricter Covid-19 restrictions.

Hair and beauty salons also had to shut for four weeks.

She said the sale of alcohol was a factor in reaching a decision because "defences come down when alcohol is taken".

It is understood restaurants may be allowed to reopen but not serve drink.

Cafes and coffee shops were a different matter, she said.

Ms O'Neill also said there was space to reopen close-contact services like hairdressers and beauticians in a strictly regulated way.

Hospitality Ulster chief executive Colin Neill urged the first and deputy first ministers to "make the right call to save thousands of jobs and hundreds of businesses" by allowing licensed premises to reopen on 13 November.

"We really need the executive to make sure that the focus is on getting the entire hospitality sector back up and running again this Friday to save a significant amount of jobs and businesses," he said.

"We now face a really important part of the year and although we are live to the fact that this will be an extremely challenging trading period, we need to have the doors open.

"Hundreds of businesses are struggling and now in debt as they try to keep staff in the face of mounting bills and a lack of financial aid from the government, which covers very little in reality."

Assuming ministers reach agreement, they hope to bring the plan to the assembly on Monday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Robin Swann has urged the Irish government to introduce rules similar to the UK for visitors from Denmark.

The UK has imposed a ban on non-UK citizens coming from Denmark amid concerns over a new coronavirus strain that has spread from mink to humans.

UK citizens can return from Denmark - but will have to isolate along with all members of their household for 14 days.

There have been Covid-19 outbreaks on Danish mink farms, triggering a widespread cull of all mink in the country.

While there are no mink farms in NI, there are in the Republic of Ireland, including a number in Donegal, and they will be subject to Covid-19 testing.

In a letter to the Irish health minister, seen by BBC News NI, Mr Swann asked his counterpart to introduce similar measures to the UK "in the interests of the safety of all citizens on our island".

There are no direct flights between Northern Ireland and Denmark, so visitors and returning holidaymakers travel through Dublin airport or airports in Scotland, Wales or England.

On Sunday, seven further coronavirus-related deaths were reported by the Department of Health in the previous 24-hour period.

It brings the total number of deaths reported by the department to 781.

There were also an additional 420 cases of coronavirus confirmed.

There are 55 people being treated in intensive care units and 41 of them are on ventilators.