"We feel like our life jackets have been ripped off" - shielding community
People with underlying health conditions who are clinically extremely vulnerable feel 'forgotten' and 'petrified' as more Covid restrictions ease.
From Thursday, people who visit indoor attractions, retail and indoor seated venues will not have to social distance.
Shield Us NI say every restriction that is removed makes their world smaller, especially now they have no protection through health guidance.
It was removed on April 12th when CEV people were told they could return to work if they could not from home.
Dr Michael McBride said it was an 'important step to helping CEV people re-engage with everyday life with confidence.'
However, Emmy Kelly from Shield Us has been telling us they feel left behind.
She said: The mitigations that were in place gave us from protection, but talking to members after the latest announcement on social distancing, they said it was like having their life jacket ripped off.
"We are still CEV, we have had our status removed and some of us can't get the vaccine. So having social distancing removed means the places we felt safe before they wont feel safe anymore.
"Removing this mitigations makes our world so much smaller. Every time a restriction is lifted, our protection is being taken away bit by bit by bit."
"We have members desperate and in crisis and they have no understanding from schools or work because we have had our status removed.
"They can remove the status from us, but we were CEV pre pandemic but we knew how to protect ourselves against it. We don't with Covid and the mitigations do nothing to protect us."