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Almost three-quarters of a million people were identified as coming into close contact with someone infected with Covid-19 in the week to 6 January, the latest test and trace figures (pdf) show.
The number of close contacts identified has increased significantly in the last four weeks, according to the Department of Health and Social Care, reaching 736,939 in the most recent week.
Northern Ireland faces a “major crisis” with food supplies when the three-month grace period for the new post-Brexit customs rules comes to an end, its agriculture minister has said.
Edwin Poots, a DUP minister in the power-sharing executive, made the claim this morning on the BBC Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show. He said:
It was made very clear to us by the suppliers to both hospitals and schools that if the current arrangement for supermarkets isn’t extended in a few months’ time that they will not be able to supply our hospitals and schools with food.
That is a major crisis and I have raised this with Michael Gove [the Cabinet Office minister].
Read the original article at The Guardian