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Border counties may move to Level Four if North locks down this week

Border counties may be moved to Level four restrictions as early as this week if Northern Ireland...
Newstalk
Newstalk

13.55 12 Oct 2020


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Border counties may move to Le...

Border counties may move to Level Four if North locks down this week

Newstalk
Newstalk

13.55 12 Oct 2020


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Border counties may be moved to Level four restrictions as early as this week if Northern Ireland opts for a circuit break lockdown.

Stormont’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride has recommended a six-week lockdown in the North where officials are now reporting more than 1,000 new cases a day.

DUP leader Arlene Foster has said politicians have some “big decisions to take this week” but insisted that tougher restrictions are not inevitable.

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Government sources here say counties like Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan could move to Level Four if the North goes for a lockdown.

The latest figures form the Health Protection Surveillance Centre show that all three counties now have 14-day coronavirus rates higher then 300 per 100,000 population.

Cavan’s rate has doubled in the past two days and now sits at 338.7.

Donegal still has the highest rate in the country and now sits at 344.9 while Monaghan is on 319.3.

Meanwhile, Derry and Strabane, just over the border from Donegal have been battling the highest infection rates on the island.

Mrs Foster said Stormont leader s would take a “balanced approach” to new restrictions.

“Heavier restrictions are not inevitable,” she said.

“I have been saying that for some time that if people just get back to basics – engaged in social distancing, good respiratory hygiene, washing their hands and of course wearing their masks in the appropriate place then we in the Executive will be able to respond to that.

“But whatever about it, we will have big decisions to take this week. These decisions are far from straightforward and certainly can’t be characterised, as some people try to, as health versus wealth.

“Of course, at a very basic level, if you lose your job and you end up in poverty, that too has health implications – so we need a balanced approach.”

On the Pat Kenny Show this morning, said the rising cases along the border show that officials must work together to fight the virus across the island.

“We are seeing increasing rates very similar to what we are seeing in Northern Ireland and if there was ever a reflection of just how integrated travel is across that border, I think the number of cases we are seeing in Cavan, Monaghan and Donegal reveal just how integrated we are and how difficult it would be to close that,” he said.

Reporting from Seán Defoe and Michael Staines


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