Covid-19: Lockdown easing north and south 'not aligned'

The easing of lockdown restrictions in NI and the Republic of Ireland will not be perfectly aligned, Taoiseach (Irish PM) Micheál Martin has said.

Some measures will be eased in Northern Ireland on Friday, but the Irish government is not due to announce relaxations until next month.

Mr Martin told NI business leaders he was in regular contact with Stormont's first and deputy ministers about the pace of reopening.

"We keep each other informed," he said.

"But I don't see perfect alignment or anything in the next number of weeks. There will be some gaps."

He said this was primarily down to the differences in the speed of vaccination programmes in the two jurisdictions.

"We are moving at pace now, and hopefully both north and south can look forward to reopening in a cautious and phased way with restrictions, so long as numbers remain as they are now," he added.

The current Reproduction (R) number in Northern Ireland, which measures how quickly the virus is spreading, is estimated to be between 0.7 and 1.05, down from 0.95-1.4 the previous week.

But the average daily number of new cases being confirmed has risen slightly.

The seven-day rolling average of new positive cases is 41 per 100,000 people, up from 38 the previous week.

The report says the "modest increase" is particularly in the 0-11 age group, and appears to be stabilising.

It adds that it may be partly due to the return of school and the rollout of testing for close contacts.

Northern Ireland is further easing Covid-19 restrictions on Friday with driving tests resuming and close contact services such as hairdressers able to reopen.

Outdoor visitor attractions will also be able to open their doors for the first time since lockdown was imposed after Christmas.

Stormont ministers agreed to the reopening dates earlier this month.

Outdoor hospitality businesses and non-essential retail will open next week.

The Northern Ireland Prison Service announced on Thursday that in-person visits will re-commence from 4 May. In-person visits have been suspended since just after Christmas.

"We will of course remain vigilant to the risk of the virus and this decision will be kept under review," said Northern Ireland Prison Service director general Ronnie Armour.

"However, I know this decision will be welcome news to the people in our care and their families."

Meanwhile, Health Minister Robin Swann said there were still difficulties in getting information about flight passengers who are crossing the border into Northern Ireland.

He said he was still concerned that his department was not getting full data from Passenger Locator Forms completed in the Republic of Ireland.

"Progress has been made, but there is still difficulties in regards to data sharing processes is what I think the minister of foreign affairs referred to recently in a joint meeting with the secretary of state," the minister told the health committee.

"One of our protections actually is the small number of indirect or direct international flights that we're currently having to manage, so that is keeping us in a pretty secure place in regards to that."