NORTHERN Ireland’s most senior medic says there is “no evidence” to support a claim that coronavirus is linked to “people’s political affiliation or religion”.
The chief medical officer’s clarification came as calls remain for DUP minister Edwin Poots to resign for introducing a sectarian element to the crisis.
Speaking at a briefing with journalists yesterday, Michael McBride said: “At no stage publicly or privately have we linked cases with people’s political affiliation or religion. There is no such evidence.”
Speaking separately during assembly question time, Health Minister Robin Swann made similar points, telling MLAs there was no evidential basis for Mr Poots’s contention.
“Something we don’t do is ask anybody who’s contracted Covid-19 their political or religious affiliation,” he said.
“Our nursing staff, our doctors, our hospital porters don’t care what religion or what political affiliation their patients have, nor does Covid. It’s an equal opportunities killer.”
The agriculture minister claimed last week that he was privately told that the recent increase in cases stemmed from the behaviour of Sinn Féin at the Bobby Storey funeral and the actions of some GAA supporters. He also claimed that there were six times more covid cases in nationalist areas.
Mr Poots caused additional controversy when he told The Irish News on Monday that he did not believe these were sectarian comments because “most Sinn Féin leaders don’t attend the Catholic Church on a regular basis”.
Four days after the original comments and amid calls for Mr Poots’s resignation, his party leader and first minister Arlene Foster has failed to publicly back the Lagan Valley MLA.
Asked again yesterday if the first minister had confidence in Mr Poots, Mrs Foster failed to respond.
Among other coronavirus developments:
- Writing today in The Irish News, Sinn Féin’s northern leader leader Michelle O’Neill says: “The objectives of the executive... over the next four weeks must be to develop a strategy which moves us away from a generic lockdown approach.”
- DUP MLA Paul Givan has described longer school closures advocated by some executive ministers as “child abuse”.
- An Irish language principal said schools should be allowed to carry a budget deficit to employ young people affected by the pandemic.
n Three more people have died of Covid in the north, with 913 new cases. In the Republic there were 13 deaths and 1,269 new cases.
