Northern Ireland extends lockdown to March

Northern Ireland’s first minister Arlene Foster has announced that the country’s lockdown will be extended until 5 March in an effort to drive down Covid cases.

Non-essential stores have been closed since the end of trading on Christmas Eve as part of what was then planned to be a six-week lockdown.

But that has now been extended to March due to a spike in coronavirus cases in the country.

There will be a review of the extension on 18 February.

“Following a detailed outline from health, highlighting continuing pressures on hospitals and intensive care units and the emergence of highly-transmissible variants the executive has agreed that the restrictions will be extended for four weeks,” Foster said at a press conference.

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