NEW shielders - diagnosed with terminal illness after July 2020 - have been told to call a helpline for assistance buying food as the Department for Communities indicates its priority online shopping registration system will not reopen.
Advice NI's Kevin Higgins highlighted the plight of a woman with a Stage 4 cancer diagnosis who "desperately wants" access to the guaranteed supermarket food delivery service "so that she can stay safe".
The woman was "diagnosed terminally ill after the deadline for registration".
The scheme closed on July 30.
He called for it to resume without delay, saying Northern Ireland "urgently need re-opening of priority slots for 'new shielders'".
A department spokeswoman said registrations "for priority online shopping for those who were shielding was paused in line with shielding at the end of June", with those who made the deadline "continuing indefinitely" with "prioritised slots with the major food retailers".
"In addition, all of the major retailers have increased their capacity for online delivery in the intervening months so that delivery capacity outside of the Christmas period has not been reported to be a major issue," she said.
"There are also numerous delivery options through smaller shops as well as a large variety of independent retailers which now offer home delivery.
"If anyone who is Clinically Extremely Vulnerable is unable to access food delivery through these routes or through family and friends then they should contact the Covid-19 Community Helpline on Freephone 0808 802 0020, text ACTION to 81025, or email covid19@adviceni.net."
She also directed people to the Consumer Council website www.consumercouncil.org.uk/coronavirus/vulnerable#section-2849.
A Tesco spokeswoman said the company "continue to ringfence priority slots for vulnerable customers and now have over 700,000 on our list".
"There continues to be extremely high demand for online grocery shopping and we are working around the clock to serve as many customers as we can.
"We have more than doubled our online capacity since the start of the coronavirus outbreak and now have around 1.5 million slots each week.
"As with previous lockdowns, in order to free up slots for those who need them most, we are encouraging customers to prioritise shopping in-store where possible.
