Northern Ireland

Health Minister Robin Swann 'shocked' at packed Aer Lingus flight

The images, captured by passenger Sean Mallon, were taken on an Aer Lingus flight from Belfast to London. Picture from BBC
The images, captured by passenger Sean Mallon, were taken on an Aer Lingus flight from Belfast to London. Picture from BBC The images, captured by passenger Sean Mallon, were taken on an Aer Lingus flight from Belfast to London. Picture from BBC

Health minister Robin Swann said he was shocked to see a packed Aer Lingus flight from Belfast to London Heathrow this week.

"It was as if they were oblivious to any of the guidelines around social distancing," he said.

He urged the airline to revise its procedures quickly.

Mr Swann also warned against complacency around coronavirus and said any change in lockdown restrictions would be gradual.

"I am becoming increasingly concerned. I am concerned that the debate on the future of the lockdown is getting ahead of itself.

"It is getting ahead of the reality people are still facing.

"It would pile tragedy upon tragedy if Northern Ireland lost its way at this stage."

He added: "We need to stick to what we are doing to keep saving lives."

Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride said an "artifical time frame" for making decisions about easing restrictions would not be helpful.

"People are tired and we have a number of weeks to go yet before we are in a position where I believe the evidence suggests that it would be safe to step down any of these measures without seeing that R number increase and us getting back to that situation that we had an exponential growth."

He called for "mature and respectful" discussion with the public.

"We just need to ensure that we don't give mixed messages at this time," he said.

"I would be reluctant to put in place an artificial time frame for those decisions prematurely."

He said there would be a future after the lockdown.

"What is vitally important is that we have the ability to identify those outbreaks where they occur."

He said he hoped 80% of indexed cases would be traced within two days.

Stormont ministers are due to meet on Thursday to review the regulations around areas like sport and re-opening golf courses.

Mr McBride warned against any return to exponential growth of the virus' spread.

"It is about sequencing of these steps and assessing the impact that that is then having on the R number," he said.

"To put dates on that at this time would be very challenging, some might say it is speculative as we just don't know the impact that easing of the current measures would have on how the virus is spreading."

Dr McBride added: "We cannot return to exponential growth and significant numbers being admitted to hospital.

"Now is not the time to confuse the public with discussion about easing the measures."

He said it was not yet safe to ease up on the movement restrictions.

He added: "We have work to do in terms of planning."