NEW lockdown restrictions forbidding people from leaving home for non-essential reasons have come into force across the North of Ireland.
The Stormont Executive agreed the move earlier this week in order to control the spread of Covid-19.
It means people can be ordered home by the police if they do not have a “reasonable excuse” for being out.
The law will remain in place until February 6 but will be reviewed later this month.
The North of Ireland is in the second week of a six-week lockdown, with the reproductive rate of the virus – known as the R-number – sitting at about 1.8.]
Derry City and Strabane District Council is now into is third lockdown – in went into a secod lockdown on October 5 after a spike in Coronavirus cases.
Justice Minister Naomi Long said people would “notice an increase in visible policing” with the tighter lockdown restrictions in place.
However, speaking on the BBC’s The View, she said: “What we don’t want to do is create a climate where people who make minor errors end up being fined.
“There will be enforcement – I’m not saying enforcement is off the table.
“Ultimately it’s about personal responsibility and we have to drive that message home – enforcement should be the last option we take.”
Stormont ministers are set to meet on Friday, with the ongoing political row about a planned school transfer test to be raised.
Post-primary transfer tests – used by the majority of Northern Ireland grammar schools to select pupils – were due to be held in the next five weeks, with the first scheduled for Saturday.
On Tuesday the exam providers said that would not happen – one cancelled its test whille another – the Association for Quality Education (AQE) – said it was moving its test to a single sitting in February.
Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey has called for plans to hold the AQE test to be discussed by the executive.
She has written to First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill expressing her concerns about “the mental and emotional wellbeing of young people”.
She also highlighted “ongoing disruption to young people’s education”, with most school pupils not expected to return to classrooms until after the mid-term break due to the Covid-19 crisis.
The Sinn Féin minister’s opposition to the test is expected to be backed by the SDLP and the Alliance Party.
The DUP will oppose the move, arguing that it amounts to an attack on academic selection.
Meanwhile, the Western Trust has cancelled surgical operations due to pressures on the system caused by coronavirus.
Director of acute hospitals Geraldine McKay said routine elective inpatient, outpatient and day case surgeries have now been postponed until further notice.
She said the decision was “very regrettable, but necessary”.
“Red flag and some time critical procedures and clinics will continue, but will be reviewed daily,” she said.
Should the number of Covid patients further increase, she added, the trust will “have no option but to move to perform emergency and trauma surgery only”.
And that will not include cancer or red flag surgery, she added.
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