Covid-19: Visiting restrictions tightened as Covid cases surge
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The Belfast Health Trust has announced it is implementing further visiting restrictions in its hospitals and care facilities.
It has said the measures are due to continued pressures across all sites and a significant increase in Covid-19 cases.
The changes announced on Friday take effect immediately.
The trust said the decision was taken to "protect patients, staff and visitors."
Some of the measures include permitting only one of two nominated visitors to attend sites twice per week, unless local risk assessments advise otherwise.
At ward level in hospitals, only one person will be allowed to visit for the patients time in care and following a risk assessment.
People must not visit any site if they have Covid-19 symptoms.
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The current arrangements will be reviewed again on 5 January.
The Northern Trust has revised its rules for visitors and the changes will take effect on Saturday 1 January.
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Restrictions have also been implemented across the South Eastern and Southern health trusts.
On Friday, it was announced visitors are not permitted on a number of wards at Ulster Hospital and Lagan Valley Hospital.
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On twitter the Southern trust said both its emergency departments at Craigavon and Daisy Hill hospitals were under significant pressure and experiencing long waiting times.
It called for staff nurses and healthcare assistants available to work on Friday night or over the weekend to come forward.
On Thursday, the Western trust suspended visiting across all sites and facilities.
At Craigavon Area Hospital in the Southern Trust visiting was suspended on 23 July
Professor Martin McKee from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said local health trusts are doing "exactly the right thing" to keep both patients and staff safe.
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme, he said he previously warned that one of the biggest impacts of Omicron would be the loss of staff in the health service.
"You cannot bring staff who are potentially infected into a hospital and risk spreading a virus to patients and other staff," Mr Mc Kee said.
"We want to make hospitals safe, we don't want patients being exposed to risks.
"So the trusts are taking this seriously and trying to protect people as much as possible."
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