Christmas bubbles to be limited to one day in Northern Ireland – sources
PA
21 December 2020, 12:36 am
The Northern Ireland Executive has agreed to reduce the five day Christmas bubbling arrangements in the region to one day, according to Stormont sources.
The PA news agency understands the relaxation of Covid rules to allow three households to gather together will now be limited to Christmas Day.
But flexibility will be afforded to people working on December 25 to enable them to bubble on another day over the festive break.
The decision was made by Stormont ministers during an emergency virtual executive meeting late on Sunday night.
The Northern Ireland Executive has agreed to reduce the five day Christmas bubbling arrangements in the region to just one day.
The relaxation of Covid rules to allow three households to gather together will now be limited to Christmas Day.
But flexibility will be afforded to people working on December 25 to enable them to bubble on another day over the festive break.
The decision was made by Stormont ministers during an emergency virtual executive meeting late on Sunday night.
This is a fast moving situation. One which we are keeping under constant review. We have been in discussion with Health minister, CMO and CSA on recent developments. We will continue the discussion over the weekend. We all need to limit our interaction with others – stay at home
NI Executive discussing temporary travel ban from Great Britain to Northern Ireland
There are practical issues around how quickly such a ban could be introduced
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The meeting is set to take place at 9pm on Sunday evening. Credit: PA Media
Ministers are set to take part in a late night Executive meeting over the new strain of Covid-19 found in England.
It is set to take place at 9pm on Sunday evening.
Government ministers from Sinn Fein, the Alliance Party and the SDLP issued a joint request for an Executive meeting to be held on Sunday.
In a letter seen by PA news agency, Minister for Justice Naomi Long, Minister for Finance Conor Murphy and Minister for Infrastructure Nichola Mallon raised concerns about the more infectious coronavirus variant found in England.
Ministers also debated amending the 1967 Public Health Act to introduce a temporary ban on travel from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
Sinn Fein supported the move, however practical issues were raised around how quickly such a ban could be introduced, given the time it would likely take for the Department of Health to draw up regulations to bring it into effect.
The DUP position was that UK internal travel is already banned from Tier 4 areas in England, so there is no need for added Stormont legislation to enforce that.
The party believes the responsibility for stopping flights and ferries within the UK is an issue for the UK government and has also raised concern that Stormont could leave itself open to compensation liabilities if it was to legislate on the issue.