Coronavirus: Northern Ireland to ease lockdown restrictions in 'baby steps' from next week
Garden centres and household recycling centres will be able to reopen and some marriage ceremonies can go ahead.
Friday 15 May 2020 09:05, UK
Northern Ireland will begin to ease its coronavirus lockdown restrictions in "baby steps" from next week.
As of Monday, garden centres and household recycling centres will be able to reopen.
Marriage ceremonies involving someone who is suffering from a terminal illness can also go ahead from next week.
First Minister Arlene Foster said the region's R rate had dropped to below 0.7, representing "very tentative first steps toward recovery".
The R rate is the number of people an infected person passes the disease on to.
The minor changes come after a meeting of the powersharing executive on Thursday.
Mrs Foster said: "It is important that everyone understands that the process of relaxing restrictions will be incremental and there won't be a dramatic shift in relation to the lifting of restrictions."
The total number of deaths in the region for those who have tested positive for coronavirus rose to 454 on Thursday, after a further five fatalities were announced.
Northern Ireland's lockdown exit plan sets out a five-step process, but has not assigned projected dates for any of the stages.
The executive would "move towards step one" of the exit plan on Monday when further relaxations would be announced, according to Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill.
She described Thursday's announcement to ease the lockdown measures as "baby steps".
The ministers have also committed to publishing their decision-making matrix each day onwards to be "open and honest" with the public on what factors were influencing the restrictions.
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Ms O'Neill added: "We must remember that the regulations are in place to save lives and the executive does not take decisions on whether to maintain or indeed to relax the restrictions lightly.
"Every decision is carefully judged based on an evaluation of risks and potential benefits.
"Our ability to recover from coronavirus will be a partnership and the partnership effort involves every single member of society."