O'Neills Sportswear, best known for its GAA clothing and equipment, says it is making it's way through massive orders for the health service after closing its main operation and switiching to making scrubs for the medical profession.

Last Thursday, the firm announced it was temporarily laying off 750 staff and suspending operations at its base in Strabane.

But the machines are to be switched back on and around 150 staff will return to work to supply gear to NHS staff across NI's health trusts.

Managing director Kieran Kennedy tells Evening Extra that after obtaining samples from Altnagelvin Hospital on Friday night, they produced some of their own on Saturday morning.

"We've started out making scrubs, basically for all the trusts," he said. "We've got the go-ahead now to start producing.

"We just have to do whatever we can to try to help our frontline services on the medical side."

He says he's already been asked if the company could produce a million face masks and 50,000 scrubs. The company aims to have 10,000 sets of scrubs by the end of the week.

Richard Morgan
BBC News NI business reporter

Lloyds Banking Group has told BBC News NI it is following government guidance around coronavirus.

A number of Lloyd’s employees based in Belfast contacted the BBC to express concerns about how staff were seated and the provision of hand sanitiser.

Accord, which represents staff in financial services within Lloyds Banking Group, told BBC News NI the bank has stepped up procedures.

Image source, Getty Images

Of the 1,600 people at the Gasworks site, 92% are members of Accord.

Accord has said it is satisfied that processes were accelerated at the site on Monday to implement the social distancing guidelines as outlined by government.

A Lloyd’s spokesperson says: “We have introduced new social distancing measures in our Belfast Gasworks office and there is foam sanitiser available.”

Belfast's Chamber of Commerce chief executive Simon Hamilton says he believes a government decision to close down non-essential retail "now seems probably inevitable sooner rather than later".

Image source, Pacemaker

Mr Hamilton says that ,in some cases, footfall in Belfast is down 80/85% year-on-year".

He says the drop in footfall had accelerated over the last "five or six days".

Barry McMahon, principal of St Clare's Primary School in Belfast, has been explaining the difficulty of educate young children on keeping a safe distance from people.

Image source, Getty

"It's so unusual for us to even get our head round, it's so difficult to manage children" he said.

"I'm thinking how interactive they are, how tactile they are - all they will want to do is go towards one another. We're dealing then with what that might cause - we don't know."

BBC News NI education correspondent Robbie Meredith tells Evening Extra that the Department of Education has asked all schools to tell them if they were open today and if so how many pupils attended.

Image source, Getty Images

"In my very limited, unscientific survey it does seem that the department's message of only sending your child to school if it's the only viable option has been getting through," he says.

"The schools I have been talking to, fewer pupils than they had been expected actually turned up today, which is a good thing."

Emergency legislation that would grant powers aimed at tackling the spread of the coronavirus pandemic are being debated by MPs.

Under the proposals, external, airports could shut and police would be able to force people with virus symptoms to isolate.

Image source, Getty Images

The powers, which would be time-limited for two years, are expected to be approved by MPs.

It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned new, stricter anti-virus measures could soon be introduced.

Read more here.

BBC News NI's health correspondent Marie-Louise Connolly has news of more closures, this time for learning disability day centres in the Belfast Trust area.

Pictures of crowded trains in Northern Ireland have been circulating on social media since the introduction of a "Saturday" timetable.

Translink says it is "monitoring services" and will "adjust capacity as necessary".

It says new service changes had come into effect today (Monday), after the infrastructure minister's response to the COVID-19 outbreak and in response to a significant reduction in passenger numbers.

“In line with advice from the Public Health Agency, we are urging people to travel only when necessary," a spokeswoman says.

The company has increased cleaning and is minimising contact between staff and customers.

They're encouraging people to buy prepaid tickets and use contactless payments.

The first minister has been underlining the importance of everyone - not just those in vulnerable groups - following guidelines on social distancing.

During the daily Stormont briefing, she said she was speaking with Claire McClurg whose husband Mark, a Newtownards pastor, is in intensive care with the coronavirus.

Image source, Reuters

"He's just turned 40, no underlying health issues at all and has been in intensive care now for a week," Arlene Foster said.

"That's what can happen. So just because you're young does not mean that you're invincible."

She added: "We will take legislative powers, we will use it when it is appropriate and proportionate to use, but I have to say it is important that people take action now."

BBC News NI reporter Michael Fitzpatrick tweeted earlier today about a lack of social distancing and hand sanitiser when he was covering the courts in Coleraine.

Now he says guidance from the Lord Chief Justice's Office will not come into play until 30 March.

There have been plenty of calls for more coronavirus testing and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill tells the daily Stormont briefing that "we need to ramp it up significantly".

"We know this and we're going to work with the health minister to make sure this is the case as quickly as possible."

Health Minister Robin Swann said last week testing would be increasd to 800 per day, but, on Sunday, Arlene Foster said that the testing regime would go beyond that outlined by Mr Swann.

There's a big queue at this Carrickfergus pharmacy but the store and its customers are demonstrating the best way to follow the government's guidance on social distancing.

Image source, Jamie Withers

Continuing at Stormont, Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill says it's a matter of when, not if, there will be a lockdown in Northern Ireland,

"It's important that we communicate this in a sensible way, because people will be afraid when they hear the word lockdown.

"So when we move there, and we will have to move there, then we need to communicate that in a very sensitive way and explain it very well to the public and that's what we will do."

First Minister Arlene Foster says if people continue to ignore advice on social distancing, the executive will be forced to bring in measures.

"We all need to step up and if some of us cannot and persist in putting others' lives at risk then we as an executive will act," she says.

"We will, as other governments have done, use legislation to enforce social distancing."

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill says we have to fight back against Covid-19.

"We won't get a second chance at this, this is here, this is now, this is not a dummy run," she says.

"We can come through this. We can come out the other end.

"The message couldn't be clearer - just please stay at home.

"This is an emergency. People should not leave the house unless it's absolutely necessary."

First Minister Arlene Foster says letters are being sent out to 40,000 people in Northern Ireland believed to be most at risk from coronavirus advising them to socially isolate.

Image source, reuters

She says other people should follow advice on social distancing.

Mrs Foster adds if people don't follow the advice then "the virus will spread, it will surge and it will result in a wave of deaths".

"This really is a matter of life and death."

Click the play button at the top of the page to watch the press conference with Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill live.

Researchers at Queen's University Belfast have been awarded a grant of £295,626 to try to find a treatment for Covid-19.

They have been given the grant as part of the £20 million rapid research response funded by UK Research and Innovation, and by the Department of Health and Social Care.

The research is being led by Ultan Power, a professor of molecular virology at QUB.

QUB's team will screen drugs currently approved for human use, to determine whether they are effective in killing the virus or dampening down its symptoms.

The Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) says it has produced new information for farmers about coronavirus in response to a huge volume of questions from the farming community here.

UFU president Ivor Ferguson says the Frequently Asked Questions document gives "support and advice for family-run farm businesses during this challenging time".

It can be found here., external