Northern Executive ministers have "vented their frustration" at what they say is failure of the Government in Dublin to provide locator forms about people flying into the Republic and then travelling to Northern Ireland.

First Minister Arlene Foster said that Ministers at a meeting of the Northern Executive on Thursday had asked that the issue be urgently raised with Taoiseach Micheal Martin.

Ms Foster, who gave a press conference with Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill in Dungannon, Co Tyrone on Thursday evening, said the matter had been raised with the Government as least as far back as July.

Hospital Report

"Ministers vented their frustration again at the lack of progress with the Irish Government regarding passenger locator forms," said Ms Foster when referring to Thursday's Executive meeting.

Pen and paper used to record vaccines as IT system not in place yet, Dáil told

---

‘Significant pressure’ on hospitals with 287 patients in ICU – HSE director

---

Covid-19: ‘All GPs and staff’ to be vaccinated be end of February

---

Lockdown’s silver linings: ‘I’m looking at the world with a kind of newness I had forgotten’

---

Ms Foster suggested there should be no data sharing problems on the issue. “The Attorney General in the Republic has appeared to confirm that there should be no legal impediment to sharing that information. So ministers have asked us to elevate the matter and raise it again urgently with the Taoiseach,” she said.

The First Minister specifically referred to travellers flying into Dublin over Christmas and then travelling to the North without this information being passed on to the authorities in Northern Ireland.

“That doesn’t allow us then to deal with the isolation issues that should have followed on from people coming into Northern Ireland,” she said.

Deputy First Minister Ms O’Neill said the issue had been raised on “many occasion” with Dublin Ministers. “The issue needs to be resolved,” she said.

A spokesman for the Taoiseach said that Mr Martin discussed the issue remotely with Ms Foster and Ms O’Neill on Wednesday night.

Covid test

Meanwhile, the Executive agreed that anyone arriving into Northern Ireland from outside Britain and the Republic must be able to prove they had obtained a negative Covid test within three days before they travelled.

“Anyone arriving into Northern Ireland who has been outside of the Common Travel Area within the previous 14 days must have evidence of a negative test in the last 72 hours and of course the requirement to self isolate for 14 days remains on all sorts of passengers,” said Ms Foster.

The First Minister also disclosed that the R rate of transmission of coronavirus has now dropped from about 1.8 last week to between 0.7 and 0.9 now, which means the infection rate is reducing.

The North’s health department meanwhile reported 16 more Covid-19 deaths taking the Northern Ireland death toll to 1,533.

Ms O’Neill said the reduction demonstrated that the current six-week lockdown due to end on February 6th was taking effect, but she warned there was no room for complacency and people must continue to observe the Covid rules.

PSNI chief constable, who also attended the Dungannon press conference, said that about 40 penalty notices were being issued by police each day to people breaking the regulations.

On this Ms Foster said, “I just have to say I find it incredible, frankly unbelievable, that there are still people who are holding house parties and other social gatherings at this time when the rest of us are fighting hard to give everybody a chance to live.”

The North’s health department meanwhile reported 16 more Covid-19 deaths taking the Northern Ireland death toll to 1,533.

In its daily afternoon bulletin on Thursday the department also recorded 973 new confirmed cases of coronavirus bringing the total since the outbreak of the pandemic to 92,782.

There were 105 Covid deaths in the past week compared to 89 deaths in the previous seven days.

Hospital bed occupancy in the North is now at 96 per cent. There are 850 people receiving Covid-19 treatment in Northern Ireland hospitals – a drop of 19 on the figures for the previous day – with 58 in intensive care and 44 on ventilators.