Health Minister Robin Swann's paper to the Executive last night (conveying advice of CMO & CSA) - which recommended guidance not to fly into NI from GB, rather than a ban - says covid is more likely to come into NI via RoI & suggested "limiting travel from RoI" as well as from GB

The five-page health advice paper says that "given the extent of traffic between RoI and UK it is almost inevitable that the [virus] variant is present in RoI where it is unlikely to be easily detected given that little viral sequencing is performed".

The paper works on the assumption that the viral mutation is present in both RoI & NI, even though that has not yet been proven. It then says that less than 1% of covid cases in NI have reported travelling to GB while "rather more" (but no figure is given) have been to RoI.

Robin Swann's paper says that the Departmental Solicitor's Office - part of SF Finance Minister Conor Murphy's department - have given legal advice of the need to do further work before moving to any travel ban from GB. He also sets out some other problems with a sudden ban.

This is the conclusion to Swann's paper - which the Executive agreed. One point does not appear to have been considered - it assumes the variant is in NI & so a ban is of limited use. But surely there is a difference between a small number of infected people & a larger influx?