Covid-19: 'Naive' to set Covid restrictions end date, says Mallon

It would be "naive" to set a date to remove all Covid-19 restrictions in Northern Ireland, the infrastructure minister has said.

Nichola Mallon's comments come after First Minister Paul Givan's claim that the "justification for regulations is diminishing".

He said that he hoped NI Executive ministers could agree to scrap all regulations by the end of September.

On Thursday, a number of easements to the regulations were announced.

These included the removal of bubbles for school pupils from the start of term, the return on full in-person learning at further and higher education facilities and changes to to self-isolation requirements.

While relaxations were also made for the hospitality sector, with the previous cap of six people sitting at tables in pubs and restaurants scrapped, the executive stopped short of changing rules on social distancing.

Ms Mallon, the deputy leader of the SDLP, said the executive had agreed to follow a data-led approach in their decision-making around regulations.

She told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that she did not want to see a repeat of the "very difficult and challenging executive meeting" before Christmas in 2020.

"People put dates out there and felt obligated to stick to them even though the data indicated that we should be doing something very different," she said.

"I will look at the data, I will make my decisions accordingly but I want to reassure people, of course I don't want restrictions in place any longer than necessary."

Also speaking to the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme, Dr Tom Black from the British Medical Association (BMA) welcomed the latest round of easements to the Covid-19 regulations but urged caution.

"It's really important to let the public know, when they work hard and make sacrifices there is an award, essentially, at the end of it," he said.

"Every time we think we're being successful against this virus we become complacent and complacency leads to failure.

"It's not sensible to say, 'In the future we're going to do this', I think what we have to do is watch the data carefully.

"We all would hope to get back to normal, we all hope to get back to a way of life that we had before with freedom, but this virus doesn't let go.

"The modelling would suggest that when the children go back to school in September that there will be an increase in infection."

DUP junior minister Gary Middleton has indicated that more Covid-19 restrictions may be lifted by September.

But he said measures must be in place to support the health service.

"I think one of the key issues we have to address is the members of the public having a lack of access to their GPs," he told BBC Radio Foyle.

"That is ongoing issue and we are unfortunately seeing that filter into the emergency departments in Altnagelvin Hospital.

"As we plan for the winter surge, we have to ensure that we have all aspects of our heath service working to full capacity."

Other moves agreed by the executive on Thursday include: