Northern Ireland Executive to meet over Omicron but say no plans for new restrictions

The Northern Ireland Executive is to meet later today to consider their response to the Omicron variant in Northern Ireland.

However, speaking yesterday, the first and Deputy First Ministers said there were no plans to bring in new Covid restrictions after three cases of the new Omicron variant were confirmed on Tuesday.

Two are from same household in the greater Belfast area and a third unconnected case is in the South Eastern Trust area.

Today's meeting also follows the move by the UK government to tighten restrictions to combat the new variant.

However, the Plan B announced by Boris Johnson involves similar measures to those already announced by the Northern Ireland Executive including a stronger work from home message and the use of a Covid certification system.

Mr Johnson announced he was enacting his coronavirus Plan B in response to the new Covid-19 variant known as Omicron, which he said is "spreading rapidly all around the world".

Paul Givan and Michelle O'Neill speak to UTV News about the new Omicron variant.

Speaking at separate events on Wednesday morning, Paul Givan and Michelle O'Neill said the situation is being monitored. 

The First Minister said: "What I want is for calm, assured understanding of what this new variant is, what it's going to be like, not to be taking decisions through panic or fear.

Mr Givan added: "But we need to recognise this is a concerning development, but we continue to put into practice those measures that we have been doing over the past number of weeks and months, and I encourage people to continue to do that." 

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said the advice remains the same, as she urged for the public to stay vigilant.

"We knew whenever we took the decision last week when I made those comments, we knew that Omicron was coming," she told the press in Londonderry.

"If we have to look at additional measures, then that's what we have to do. But as of today, the chief medical officer’s advice, the Health Minister’s advice is that what we're doing is enough. But we need again to ask the public to be vigilant and to get the vaccine if you haven't already got it."

The first cases of the Omicron variant detected in the region were confirmed on Tuesday evening.

Northern Ireland's chief medical officer said he suspects there are more cases of the Omicron variant than the current cases identified and there are concerns it will replace the Delta variant in Northern Ireland in the coming weeks.

• Chief Medical Officer Sir Michael McBride comments on the Omicron cases:

“We have been expecting these cases, I suspect there are more cases than those that we have identified to date,” he told UTV News.

“And the picture that we were seeing in the rest of the UK is a troubling one, with very significant increase in case numbers. 

“So this suggests that this is a very transmissible virus and that it transmits more efficiently than the Delta variant.”

Sir Michael said there was currently no evidence to suggest there has been any community transmission at this time, but he added the concern is it will replace the Delta variant in the coming weeks.

The CMO went further when interviewed on Wednesday, saying he expected to see a "rapid increase" in cases in the coming days.

The three confirmed cases are all linked to travel from Great Britain.

The chief medical officer said the Public Health Agency (PHA) is currently undertaking extensive testing and enhanced contact tracing in order to identify any other potential cases. He thanked those identified as close contacts for their full cooperation with the Public Health Agency.

“It will take some days before we can identify all of the potential other cases that maybe implicated,” he added. 

“The more that we can do to buy ourselves time, the more that we can delay the spread of this, the more we can delay community transmission, the more we will know about the virus, this new variant, and the more time we will have to ensure that we can rule out the booster vaccination programme to as many people as possible.”

The CMO said if there was another spike in cases, even without significant amounts of severe disease, it had the potential to put pressure on the health service.

Asked whether the current restrictions in Northern Ireland go far enough to protect the public, Sir Michael said: "We will have to look at the measures that we have in place and to, in due course, provide advice to the Executive if necessary about whether additional measures are needed.

"What I can say is that the measures that we have in place at this present moment in time, we need to make sure that we get the maximum benefit from them, because we know they work, they will work for this variant and all of us need to be following the public advice and all of us need to be adhering to the regulations around wearing face coverings and other restrictions which we know are of benefit."

He appealed for the public to take steps to break the chain of infection and help the health service.

Those recommended measures including: vaccines, boosters, face coverings, social distancing and reducing contacts as well as working from home where possible.