Opinion

Urgent decision needed on extending Covid-19 restrictions

MORE than 1,000 deaths related to Covid-19 have now been registered in Northern Ireland, a number that emphasises the deadliness of the virus and the need for continued vigilance to arrest its spread.

It is, sadly, grimly inevitable that the death toll will continue to rise. During this current phase of the pandemic, the health and social care system has already been stretched beyond its limits.

Staff are exhausted, hospitals are full and there are real fears as to how the system will cope if the traditional winter pressures felt annually by the health service converge with coronavirus cases.

Dr Tom Black, the BMA chair in Northern Ireland, has spoken eloquently this week of the challenges facing the system and called for a new lockdown.

This might have prompted a characteristically unhelpful response from DUP MP Sammy Wilson, but more usefully it stimulated debate about whether the tighter Covid-19 restrictions introduced by the Stormont executive last month should be extended beyond their scheduled end this Friday.

There are signs that the measures have already achieved at least some of what they were intended to.

The 'R', or reproduction, number has fallen substantially, from around 1.6 three weeks ago to 0.7 this week.

The key question facing the executive now is whether to extend the measures for a further period. Two weeks has been suggested, meaning they would end on November 27.

An extension would not suddenly relieve the pressures on our hospitals or the health and social care staff working in such extraordinary adversity.

But there are sensible expectations that - in conjunction with a falling or stable R number - it would help to further slow the virus's momentum.

An extra two-week shutdown this month will be a further hammer blow to many businesses, particularly the hospitality sector, though it might also mean that they are able to operate throughout December and enjoy Christmas trade.

If the executive does extend restrictions - and it should make its decision urgently - then it must ensure that appropriate economic support is available to businesses and workers. The reintroduction of the furlough scheme is a significant and welcome contribution.

SDLP minister Nichola Mallon has said extending restrictions now would make meaningful Christmas family gatherings a real possibility.

Many will regard that as an enormously appealing prospect when the virus has enforced such painful distance between children, parents and grandparents already this year.