Coronavirus: Covid-19 restrictions 'not about scaremongering'

Measures reintroduced by the NI Executive to curb the spread of Covid-19 are "not about scaremongering", the health minister has said.

From next week, new limits will be placed on indoor and outdoor meetings.

Robin Swann said there was a need to "challenge that complacency" which has led to a ten-fold increase in the number of weekly cases since July.

More cases were to be expected, he added, following an outbreak among staff at a meat plant in Cullybackey.

The warning came as official figures showed there were four coronavirus-linked deaths registered in Northern Ireland last week.

On Thursday, it was announced that Cranswick would temporarily close for a deep clean after 35 of its 500 employees tested positive for the virus.

The plant is in the Mid and East Antrim Council area, which has seen 79 new cases in the past seven days, the highest in Northern Ireland.

Mr Swann said "enhanced testing" had been ordered for all staff.

"What we're seeing is a number of positive cases coming from that source and number of small outbreaks, I don't think it's anything to do particularly with the mentality or the behaviour of the people in Mid and East Antrim, they've been as responsible as everywhere else," he said.

There was no indication yet that a local lockdown for the borough is necessary, he added.

"As long as we can connect a positive case to an outbreak and a source that we know, it's not community transmission that has got out of hand, we won't have to go to those steps," said Mr Swann.

"If we do at some point in time have to do it, not just here in Mid and East Antrim but anywhere across Northern Ireland, it's something that we will have to do," he added.

On Thursday, the Executive agreed to Mr Swann's proposal to reduced the number of people allowed at indoor gatherings from 10 to six, and outdoor gatherings from 30 to 15.

This will take effect from next week.

Mr Swann said he did not want "to go down the line of enforcement", adding that there had been a very low number of fines issued for regulation breaches.

"It annoys me that we have to go to these stages," he told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster radio programme.

"Up until now, we never had to put the extra emphasis on the enforcement of the regulations that are already there.

"We can look at targeting areas where we are seeing increases in the spread of Covid, but also where we're getting reports of those establishments, those people, who are actually breaking the regulations.

"It's unfortunate that we are seeing a small number of people who think that they are above the regulations that we have, that they are immune to Covid-19," he added.