The head of the HSE has said officials are concerned at the prospect of coronavirus lockdown being lifted in the North before the Republic.

The Northern Ireland Executive this afternoon deferred any decision on lifting its coronavirus restrictions amid rising concern over hospital rates.

As it stands, pubs and restaurants are due to reopen on Friday of next week; however, that date may be pushed back depending on the virus figures.

On The Hard Shoulder this evening, HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid said an end to lockdown in the North before the Republic is “obviously a concern we would be all watching out for.”

He said there was a high number of cases in border counties in the weeks before Level Five restrictions were introduced – and noted that any rise in transmission in the North will impact south of the border.

“Even in the last few weeks, we saw the impact, particularly in some of our hospitals along the border counties in terms of Cavan and Letterkenny in particular, we saw a high surge in cases in those areas both in terms of transmission levels and hospitalised cases,” he said.

“So, of course that would be a concern for us, in terms of any potential impact of an increase in the transmission of the virus and whether that impacts further across the border counties as well and impacts on us.

“That is obviously an ongoing one, we would be watching with concern.”

"Fragile place"

Mr Reid said the country is “still in a very fragile place” in terms of the virus but noted that Ireland is now one of two European countries where figures are reducing.

“There are some encouraging trends,” he said. “Reduced numbers of cases, reduced positivity and reduced numbers of close contacts being identified and having to be tested.

“So, I would like your listeners to take great encouragement from that but from our perspective we still see it as fragile so we would be urging your listers not to drop their guard or drop their resolve.”

He said the number of patients in hospital remains relatively stable, with officials watching the situation “very, very closely.”

Hospitals

As of this afternoon, there were 307 COVID-19 patients in Irish hospitals, with 40 in intensive care.

“It has probably held for the last few days,” he said. “It, kind of, rises each morning and comes back again so we haven’t seen a significant reduction just yet along with the other positivity measures we are seeing from the virus overall.

“So, we are still watching with great caution our hospital numbers and our ICU numbers.”

He confirmed that the HSE currently has five nursing homes classified as being on Red Alert for coronavirus.

He said the classification means they are on “very significant watch” and are being provided with additional resources – including PPE, clinical specialist teams or public health teams.

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