Covid-19: Face covering exemptions 'should be very rare'

Very few people in Northern Ireland should be exempt from wearing face masks, the NI chair of the British Medical Association has said.

Dr Tom Black was speaking after a plan to tighten controls around the wearing of face coverings was suspended by the executive.

Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill denied the plan had been completely axed.

Dr Black said people should continue to wear masks indoors.

"I don't think we should always, in Northern Ireland, look to the politicians to tell us what to do. We know what the sensible thing is to do and we should do it, which is wear a mask indoors," he told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster.

"I think that everybody should wear a mask and exceptions should be very rare."

He said exemptions could include people with serious learning difficulties or with burns to their face.

"Someone with asthma or COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease], those are the patients who definitely should wear a mask, because it will not limit the absorption of oxygen and those patients are at much higher risk," he added.

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On Thursday, First Minister Paul Givan said ministers had agreed to suspend the plan to make it a statutory duty on businesses to promote compliance with face coverings requirements "indefinitely".

Mr Givan said that "no business should be asking anyone to provide proof" of an exemption.

He added ministers had been advised previously that GPs would provide the "certification" needed for exemptions, but they are now reluctant to do so because of "huge pressures".

Dr Tom Black said people should not need politicians to tell them that they should wear face coverings indoors

Dr Black said GPs had dozens of consultations each day.

"GPs are seeing anything from 35 to 45 consultations per day we're having to prioritise and triage the patients we've seen - we only see those patients with the most urgent clinical needs," he said.

"It's hardly a situation where you want to take a whole cohort of those GPs, put them to one side and say 'you can do paperwork on people who don't want to wear a mask'."

The Deputy First Minister, Ms O'Neill, said the executive had not decided what would happen to the face mask plan "but we have found it very difficult to make it work".

She added that ministers will continue to explore ways to encourage more people to wear face coverings.

Glyn Roberts, the chief executive of Retail NI, said it was another example of "well-intentioned plans which are set out which ultimately would have been really difficult to implement on the ground".

He added: "What does remain is the legal requirement for consumers if they want to shop, they need to wear a face mask, that has not changed and probably won't change for the foreseeable future.

"What we need from the executive is very, very clear messaging, we need to see new leadership, we need to see new ways of working with business and civic society in regard to what are the next steps in combating this pandemic - what is required of consumers, what is required of businesses."

Glyn Roberts said the plan would have been difficult to implement

The executive was briefed by Health Minister Robin Swann and his officials on the spread of Omicron on Thursday.

Ministers were told that cases of Covid-19 in the community in Northern Ireland have reached an all-time high and PCR testing reached capacity this week, leading to the changes in testing rules.

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