HEALTH Minister Robin Swann has said that there are “too many complexities and uncertainties” for the Executive to publish the specific data it will use to take decisions over lockdown restrictions.
The health minister also said he understood frustration after indicative dates were not included in the lockdown exit plan.
Some businesses have criticised the lack of detail in the blueprint.
But Mr Swann insisted it was too soon to follow a calendar-led approach.
On Wednesday, four more coronavirus-related deaths were recorded by the Department of Health in the North of Ireland. It brings its death toll to 2,063.
None of the new deaths were recorded in the Derry City and Strabane District Council.
A further 226 cases have been diagnosed – just nine in the Derry and Strabane Council area.
There are 307 people with Covid-19 being treated in hospital.
Thirty-one people with the virus are in intensive care.
The factors for easing the lockdown include the infection rate of the virus, known as the R number, the number of people in hospital, vaccine rollout and progress in testing and tracing positive cases.
The executive will regularly review the restrictions, with the next scheduled for 16 March.
Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, the health minister insisted it would be wrong to publish an indicative timetable for reopening.
“The time for definitive dates will come, of course it will,” he said.
“But some of those demanding a calendar-led approach now would be the first to shout if we gave them dates and then had to alter them because of the progression of the pandemic.
Empty streets and shops, bars, restaurants, hotels and hairdressers all remain in lockdown
But he warned that there was too much uncertainty and said he would not offer people “false assurance”.
“I would rather maintain a steady pace than charge for the exit door and fall over,” said the minister.
He added that the North of Ireland was on a “clear path to better times”, giving details of the latest vaccination figures which show 545,019 people have now received their first jab.
Some 37,862 people have received both doses.
The North’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride described the vaccine as the “breakthrough” many had hoped for.
“It will permanently change the impact of the virus and increasingly lessen our dependence on some of the measures we have in place,” he said.
“But no vaccine is 100% effective and will not protect everyone from this virus.”
Unlike English and Scottish plans, Northern Ireland’s document does not have indicative dates.
Earlier on Wednesday, Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill also defended the plan.
“What we need now is a cautious and sustainable approach to allow businesses and the community and our families to get back together as quickly as possibly, but to do so in a way that’s actually lasting that doesn’t lead us back in this endless cycle of lockdowns,” Ms O’Neill told BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme.
“There was a collective agreement at the executive yesterday that this pathway gives us the best chance to come out of the lockdown without having to go back into one.”
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