Northern Ireland’s Parties Vote To Extend Restrictions

Northern Ireland’s Parties Vote to Extend The Restrictions for Another One to Two Weeks.

Northern Ireland’s restrictions will be extended for between one and two more weeks, after a vote between the parties who run the country, DUP, SDLP, Sinn Fein, UUP, and the Alliance party, it was agreed on Thursday, November 12, after the original restrictions were due to end today, Friday, November 13.

It was reported that Sinn Fein and the SDLP, had both wanted the restrictions to stay in place, due to the continuing rise in cases of Covid, whilst the DUP had wanted the restrictions lifted, to help the small businesses that were suffering, so under a compromise between the UUP, the DUP and the Alliance Party, the five-party power-sharing executive agreed on the decision that cafes and hairdressers, and any other close-contact establishments would be delayed from opening for one more week and that restaurants serving alcohol must delay another two weeks.
Sinn Fein voted against these measures, while the SDLP abstained, leaving the majority decision of the other three parties.

Michelle O’Neill, Sinn Fein’s Northern Ireland leader, told UTV television, “The advice was that we needed a further two-week restriction on cafes and close-contact services, and that’s what we would have wanted to see”.
Northern Ireland has reported 825 deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test, including 15 reported on Thursday, November 12, and it has had just over 200 cases per 100,000 people over the past seven days, which is around three times the rate in the rest of the country, which has fallen sharply since the stricter measures had come into force.

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