HEALTH officials have advised the executive that Covid-19 restrictions on hospitality should be extended for another two weeks, the BBC reports.
The measures, initially imposed on October 16, are due to end next Friday, November 13.
Derry has been in lockdown since October 5 after a spike in cases.
The executive will meet later on Thursday to consider the proposals.
On Wednesday, hospitality leaders met the first and deputy first ministers and the health minister to discuss the situation.
A Department of Health proposal, seen by BBC News NI, indicates that a two-week extension of the restrictions on hospitality until the end of November could mean the possibility of avoiding further interventions before Christmas.
On Wednesday, the department reported 10 more Covid-related deaths across the North of Ireland in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 740.
There were 679 confirmed new cases of the virus, with 418 people in hospital.
Health officials have stressed that more action is needed now to prevent the health service being overwhelmed.
Elective surgery at Craigavon Hospital was cancelled this week and Northern Ireland’s medical leaders have called for “breathing space” as health services come under increasing pressure due to Covid-19.
However it is understood that ministers will be asked to consider providing further targeted support for the sector if the restrictions remain in place.
It is also understood that close-contact services such as hair and beauty salons, which also closed for the four-week period, could soon be given the green light to reopen.
It is thought a decision on whether to extend any of the restrictions may not be announced by the executive until early next week.
On Tuesday, the chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) in NI, Dr Tom Black, said reopening hospitality would be an “act of vandalism” and called for Northern Ireland to implement a second lockdown.
However, the DUP’s Sammy Wilson called Dr Black’s comments irresponsible.
“I am sure that there are people across Northern Ireland who tonight [Wednesday] will be sitting at home wondering:
‘Am I going to have a business at the end of this? How is my livelihood going to be affected? Am I going to be forced into destitution?’
“People who work in the hospitality industry, who are not well paid and are living day-to-day to try and make ends meet.
“It’s OK for a well-healed doctor to talk about ignore the economic consequences of a closedown, it’s another thing for the people who are going to be the victims of that, to have to live with it.
“I think his views were totally irresponsible. I hope that they [the executive] ignore him and I hope that they ignore his one-sided view.”
Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon called the East Antrim MP’s remarks “abhorrent” in a social media post.
She said to dismiss warnings from public health workers “is dangerous”.
England began a second lockdown earlier on Thursday, with the furlough scheme extended across the UK until December.
The Republic is also under its highest tier of restrictions until the end of this month, with the country’s health minister announcing on Wednesday that the R-rate of Covid-19 had dropped below one, suggesting the measures were having an impact.
Some DUP politicians have said they do not support calls to maintain restrictions on hospitality in the North of Ireland after November 13.
But, on Wednesday, Sinn Féin’s junior minister Declan Kearney said NI was “not out of the woods yet” and that more interventions would be required.
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