Coronavirus: Theatre and ‘wet’ pub reopening in North delayed yet again

THEATRES in the North of Ireland will not be able to reopen to audiences next week as originally planned, the Stormont Executive has said.

They had been given an indicative date of 1 September to resume business.

But the executive said it would not give the green light to the move due to the “increased transmission” of coronavirus in NI.

Indoor pubs that do not serve food have also been told they cannot reopen next week either.

They had initially been given a date of 10 August to reopen, but this was pushed back to 1 September at the earliest several weeks ago.

In a statement, an Executive Office spokesperson said ministers had agreed “no further restrictions will be lifted at this time”.

“The Executive has been condition-led in its relaxations of coronavirus restrictions,” they said.

“It has made relaxations when it has been right to do so and also consistently stated that it will be prepared to re-introduce restrictions if it is necessary to control the spread of the virus.

“The indicative date of September 1 for the opening of wet pubs, private members clubs and audiences returning to theatres has not been ratified by the executive.

“Officials have engaged with the different stakeholder bodies and no new indicative dates have been set.”

Theatre venues and concert halls had been allowed to resume rehearsals with staff from August 8.

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