Northern Ireland entered a new extended lockdown on Boxing Day as coronavirus cases remain high.

The first week of the measures are the toughest yet, with a form of curfew in operation from 8pm, from which time shops will close and all indoor and outdoor gatherings will be prohibited until 6am.

Non-essential retail will remain closed throughout the next six weeks, as will close contact services. Hospitality outlets will be limited to takeaway services and organised sport will be banned, with elite athletes included in the prohibition for the first week.

Covid-19 infection rates remain high, with a virulent strain first discovered in southern England and London recently detected in Northern Ireland.

The Stormont Executive issued guidance earlier this week in response to the emergence of the variant, which recommends against any non-essential travel between Northern Ireland and both Great Britain and the Irish Republic.

The executive also agreed to advise anyone arriving in Northern Ireland, who is staying for more than 24 hours, to isolate for 10 days. It applies to anyone who has arrived since December 22.

Stormont’s chief scientific adviser has urged the public to adhere to the restrictions, warning the country would have witnessed thousands of Covid-19 deaths if no action had been taken.

Professor Ian Young has said the already over-capacity health service would have been completely swamped in January. He warned the number of Covid-19 inpatients would have soared to between 3,000 and 4,000 by the end of the month without controls in place.

He said: ‘At the moment I think it (the variant) is only circulating in fairly small amounts, and what we can do to prevent it becoming the dominant strain is for everybody in the next six weeks to adhere really strictly to the mitigations and restrictions that are in place.

‘That gives us the best opportunity of preventing this variant form from becoming established until vaccination begins to take significant effect in our population.’

Recently, queues of ambulances were witnessed at accident and emergency departments (EDs) across Northern Ireland as patients were treated in car parks due to a lack of capacity inside hospitals.

At one point, 17 ambulances containing patients were lined up outside the ED at Antrim Area Hospital.

Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill also urged the public to follow the new lockdown regulations.

She said: ‘My appeal is for everyone to strictly follow the Covid regulations and the public health advice and be very careful in all that we do over the Christmas period.’

On Thursday, a further 11 deaths with Covid-19 in Northern Ireland were announced. The Department of Health also notified a further 841 confirmed cases of the virus – the highest single-day increase since late October.

It was also announced on Thursday that anyone arriving into Northern Ireland who has been in South Africa within the last 14 days must self-isolate for 10 days along with all members of their household.

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