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The Northern Executive on Thursday afternoon was considering “robust” proposals from health Minister Robin Swann that could see the enforcement of a six-week lockdown soon after Christmas.
On a day in which twelve more Covid-19 deaths were reported in Northern Ireland the Stormont Executive was meeting to discuss how to curb the continued high incidence of the virus in the North.
The deaths brought the coronavirus toll in Northern Ireland to 1,154.
The health department also recorded 656 new cases of coronavirus taking the total since the outbreak of the pandemic in March to 60,287.
Pressures on hospitals also remain high. On Thursday hospital bed occupancy was 104 per cent.
There were 460 patients receiving Covid treatment with 32 in intensive care and 26 of them on ventilators.
It was in this context that Executive Ministers were meeting to decide whether soon after Christmas to enter into a new possibly six-week period of restrictions that once more would see the shutdown of the hospitality, retail and leisure sector.
In advance of the Executive meeting the DUP economy Minister Diane Dodds said Northern Ireland was in an “extremely challenging position” in terms of the virus’s transmission.
“I have said over and over again how difficult this cycle of lockdown is for the economy, we have published data on the cost of the cycle of lockdown to the economy, but we’ll wait and see what the discussion at the Executive brings forward,” she said.