Milestone moment for Northern Ireland's vaccination program
Brighter days are ahead!
Last updated 4th Mar 2021
This afternoon the First and Deputy First Minster held their first joint press conference since revealing the Executive's 'Pathway to Recovery.'
Speaking on Tuesday with Stuart Robinson, Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill said the NI Executive has taken a “careful, cautious and hopeful approach” to existing restrictions.
The plan focused on nine key areas - retail; hospitality; education and young people; work; culture, heritage and entertainment; sports and leisure; travel and tourism; worship and ceremonies; home and community.
The First Minister and Deputy Frist Minister share their enthusiasm that the Coronavirus is being brought under control again!
Milestone Moment
The NI vaccine program is accelerating, with the SSE Arena in Belfast opening in April as a mass vaccination centre for the country's adult population.
Ms Foster said the proportion of new hospital admissions for people over 80 has reduced to 20%, which shows the vaccine programme is working.
"This is another significant, very welcoming and encouraging milestone. It's not merely a statistic, but it's reassurance for our grandparents, mums and dads, and sons and daughters across our community."
Speaking on the Hill of the O'Neill, Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said: "This week the executive has published our pathway to brighter days ahead. And I'm pleased that today we're able to signal further progress on our road towards gradually lifting restrictions."
"We've seen another marked decline on the number of new positive cases over the past week. The figure for new positive tests was 163 today, and while this is still too high it does represent huge progress in suppressing community transmission of the virus.
"This is reflected in the current R number for new cases, which is in the region of 0.65 - 0.75. That's a really encouraging sign."
June 10th
Stormont Ministers say they hope Northern Ireland will be in the final step of easing restrictions by June.
A review is due to take place every four weeks as part of the Executive's roadmap out of lockdown.
Ministers will consider which restrictions to lift and when.
The 10th of June is the final review date and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill says current signs are positive. "Well clearly that's what we set out in our plan, of course that's where we hope we get to, but there are so many variables."
"We're very cautious not to give anybody false hope, but certainly if things keep going in the way in which they are, if the public keep working with us then we're very hopeful we'll get there."
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