Northern Ireland's chief scientific officer has said it will be very difficult to keep schools open if the new variant of Covid-19 becomes dominant there.
The first positive case of the new strain in Northern Ireland was confirmed yesterday. "If the variant were the dominant form in Northern Ireland, then it is very unlikely that we could keep R at less than 1 and schools open," Professor Ian Young told BBC Radio Ulster's Stephen Nolan programme.
He said he does not believe that at present the variant is a "major form" in Northern Ireland, but said he is confident there is a small number of cases. "This particular variant does appear to be significantly different than many of the others which have been in circulation, it has a number of