Covid-19: Fans allowed back to outdoor sports from 24 May
By Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI Political Reporter
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Spectators could be allowed to attend outdoor sports events in Northern Ireland from later in May, it is understood.
The Northern Ireland Executive has been meeting to agree which lockdown restrictions can be lifted.
It is understood ministers have agreed up to 500 people can attend outdoor sport events as spectators from an indicative date of 24 May.
Ministers will give final approval to the proposal on 20 May.
Up to 1,000 fans will be allowed to attend the Irish Cup final at Mourneview Park in Lurgan, County Armagh, on 21 May.
From 24 May, schools will also be allowed to play sports fixtures against each other.
It is understood that from that same date, libraries and museums will be permitted to reopen, and the stay local message will also be removed.
Indoor hospitality will be permitted to resume from 24 May -with a maximum of six people per table from a maximum of six households.
Indoor sports training will be allowed to resume for sports squads from the same date along with wedding receptions and post-funeral events.
Plans to ease restrictions on 24 May will be subject to final approval on 20 May.
All retail, outdoor hospitality and self-contained tourist accommodation have already reopened.
It is also understood that theatres will be given an indicative date of 21 June to reopen, but this will need to be reviewed by the executive nearer the time in line with public health advice.
Theatres were allowed to resume rehearsals last summer, but were never allowed to welcome back audiences.
It is not clear if it will extend to live music venues, or what mitigations theatres will need to put in place.
On Wednesday, First Minister Arlene Foster said ministers would discuss what has been taking place in terms of the easing of restrictions elsewhere in the UK.
Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said Northern Ireland was in a "really good place" in terms of the pandemic and she hoped progress could be made in terms of easing restrictions.
She added that Northern Ireland was winning against Covid and that if this continued, it was hoped further restrictions could be lifted to return to "some sense of normality".
Asked when people will be able to hug again, Mrs Foster said ministers have noted what is happening elsewhere in the UK and would "want to discuss that".
"It's something that we're discussing today amongst ourselves," she said on Wednesday.
"We know that there are a lot of people who have been waiting for that time, I know certainly I have in terms of my own mother, and I'm looking forward to be able to have those discussions."
Mrs Foster also said international travel would be discussed. The executive has a traffic light system in place similar to that in England.
Glyn Roberts, Retail NI chief executive, had said that it was "vital" for the NI Executive to give the "green light" on Thursday for the reopening of hospitality.
"The reality is that we are operating on the basis of half a high street, because retail and hospitality are symbiotically linked," he told BBC NI's Good Morning Ulster.
"We can't really operate a successful high street without our friends in hospitality being able to reopen."
However, Martin McKee, Professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said matters should not be rushed, with the India variant of coronavirus being identified in parts of the UK.
"I don't want to be a doom-monger here," he told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.
"I want to see society opening up as much as anybody else, but I think that when you look at the data on this new variant as we are doing, it is getting very worrying indeed, because it is continuing to rise despite the restrictions that we have in place and rise rapidly in those parts of England where it has been brought into."
Meanwhile, Mrs Foster and Ms O'Neill held a virtual meeting with Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday to discuss the response to Covid-19 across the UK.
It is understood he raised the prospect of holding a Covid-19 recovery summit with the first and deputy first minister when they spoke.
There were also updated on the vaccination programme, the pace of change with lockdown restrictions and the government's plan to hold an independent public inquiry into the pandemic next year.