HEALTH Minister Robin Swann has warned licensed premises flouting Covid-19 restrictions that they will "face the consequences" as 69 new cases were diagnosed in Northern Ireland.
The total number of cases now sits at 6,964.
The additional 69 cases brought the the newly diagnosed seven-day total to 418.
One death was also reported yesterday bringing the total number of fatalities to 560.
Currently, one patient with coronavirus is on a ventilator in hospital.
Of the new cases, 22 were in the Belfast area. This was followed by 15 in the Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon area and Antrim and Newtownabbey, where there were eight.
Mr Swann said there had been "blatant disregard" for guidelines by some licensed premises.
"If you flout the rules you must face the consequences," he said.
Mr Swann said he planned to propose that legislation should be strengthened to punish those premises.
The minister, who described the pandemic as a "nightmare that stretches on and on", also revealed that hospital admissions were at a low level, but they are rising.
Announcing that the R-number, the rate of transmission, "is likely to be 1.3", he said it continues to be "the biggest public health crisis in a generation".
"Any complacency presents a challenge to us all," he said.
He also said that further clusters and outbreaks in hospitals "are inevitable", warning that there could be a difficult winter ahead.
"We must stick together as a society," he said.
Meanwhile, Chief Medical Officer Michael McBride warned that more people will be admitted to hospital with Covid-19, and will ultimately die, unless the spread of is curbed.
He said testing is a vital tool in controlling outbreaks.
Mr McBride said that while Northern Ireland is "better prepared to control any resurgence in cases", there was "considerable uncertainty" about how the "prevalence of the virus will evolve" in the autumn and winter.
Chief Scientific AdvisorProfessor Ian Young said the number of cases per day has been increasing.
"Our low point was the beginning of July when we were experiencing three to four cases of the virus per day," he said.
"Now that is almost 60 cases per day on average."
Prof Young added that the highest incidence of cases recently has been in Mid and East Antrim, but the area he is most concerned about is Belfast, where the number is rising “consistently and steadily”.
In the Republic, there were 93 new cases reported yesterday but no further deaths.
It brings the total number of confirmed cases to 28,453, while there have been 1,777 deaths.
