Sinn Féin spokesperson on Health David Cullinane has called on the government to act on NPHET advice regarding foreign travel and mandatory quarantine in designated facilities.

Teachta Cullinane also urged government to engage directly with the Northern Executive to get agreement on robust all-island measures that recognise we are a single island, a single epidemiological unit.

Teachta Cullinane said:

“The Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn was very clear this morning – a comprehensive set of measures, as advised by NPHET over the last several months, must be put in place.

“The lesson of this wave must be learned and public health advice must be implemented in full.

“This includes enforcing travel restrictions, removing discretionary advice, and mandatory quarantine in designated facilities.

“All non-essential travel must be controlled and this requires all-island cooperation.

“Partition has made effective measures more difficult to implement but that can be overcome.

“The Minister must engage directly with the First Ministers and Minister Swann to get agreement on robust all-island measures that recognise we are a single island, a single epidemiological unit.

“Government have also never got testing and tracing right. 

“It is important as the numbers come down that we use test, trace, isolate and vaccinate as the key tools to keep cases low and to proactively hunt down the virus.”