Coronavirus: Nine further deaths, 223 new cases reported in North

A further nine people with Covid-19 have died in Northern Ireland, the North's Department of Health reported on Thursday.

It brings the number of fatalities recorded by the department to 2,096.

A further 223 people tested positive for the virus.

Also on Thursday, the department updated its Covid-19 vaccine numbers. Some 655,643 vaccines have been administered in the North. Of these, 606,695 were first doses and 48,948 were second doses.

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Ministers in the North will decide next week when all pupils will return to school.

The issue was discussed at a meeting of the Northern Executive on Thursday, with ministers agreeing that the youngest primary school children, in P1-P3 – who returned to the classroom on Monday – would not switch to remote learning for a week before the Easter holidays, but would instead remain in school.

The oldest secondary students, in Years 12-14, are due to go back to school on March 22nd. A date has not yet been given for the return of other age cohorts.

Speaking after the meeting, the First Minister, Arlene Foster, said ministers had a “useful and productive discussion” but she would have “liked to have moved a bit further” regarding the return to class.

The decision on the remaining year groups in both primary and secondary will be taken at a meeting of the Executive on Tuesday, she said.

The four-weekly review of the coronavirus regulations is due to take place on the same day, and Ms Foster indicated that ministers would look at all of the nine sectors included in the North’s pathway to recovery document and would consider other easements, which could be around outdoor sport and young people.

Parties and vaccines

However, the Deputy First Minister, Michelle O’Neill, warned that people should not expect any major relaxation of the rules before Easter, with both ministers emphasising the need to follow the rules over Mother’s Day, St Patrick’s Day and Easter.

Residents in the Holyland area of South Belfast, which is popular with students, have highlighted their concerns around house parties in the run up to St Patrick’s Day, which they say have been “ongoing and have involved noise disturbance and criminal damage to cars and homes as well as substantial risks to the health and wellbeing of all.”

“I would ask everyone, whatever your situation, to take as much care as possible and follow the health guidelines to the letter,” Ms Foster said.

“Departments continue to collaborate around the situation in the University area and we will continue to have those conversations over the coming days. Please be responsible and please do not break the law,” she said.

Asked if the supply of vaccine in Northern Ireland should be shared with people in the South, Ms Foster said the British prime minister had said that once UK citizens had been vaccinated he was “content to have that conversation.”

More than 40 per cent of the adult population in Northern Ireland has so far received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, with the programme expected to be extended to people in the general population under 60 soon.

“If we’re vaccinated in Northern Ireland and there’s still a cohort of people in the Republic of Ireland not vaccinated and people are moving about and coming up to Northern Ireland and that has an impact on us here in Northern Ireland . . . so we need to have that conversation,” she said.

“We should be sharing and we should be working together,” Ms O’Neill said.