Pubs like Peadar O’Donnell’s in Waterloo Street now shut over Coronavirus spread[
From Friday evening at 6 pm, pubs, restaurants and cafes will only be allowed to offer takeaway and delivery services for four weeks.
Hair, beauty salons an barbers have to shut and gyms face additional measures too.
Finance Minister Conor Murphy said the executive had to find ways of getting support to businesses “very quickly”.
He has already announced additional grants for hospitality businesses in the Derry City and Strabane council area, where extra restrictions have been in force since October 5 where pubs, restaurants and cafes are only be allowed to offer takeaway and delivery services.
That scheme opened for applications on Wednesday.
It is not yet known if any more money will be provided to businesses in the Derry City and Strabane council area in light of the new restrictions imposed right across the North of Ireland from tomorrow after the Executive meeting on Thursday.
Some businesses will also be able to continue to avail of the UK government’s furlough scheme but that runs out at the end of October.
After that, the Job Support Scheme has been extended, which will allow employees who work for firms forced to close because of restrictions to have two-thirds of their wages paid for by the government.
Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill has said the scheme did not go far enough.
“Two-thirds doesn’t amount to very much, so we’re very much asking the British government to intervene,” she said.
“Alongside that what we need to see is a scheme that helps businesses stay afloat during this period.”
At Thursday’s executive meeting, ministers are also likely to look again at the effect of other coronavirus measures already in place.
The North’s chief health advisers have warned it would take two to three weeks before the impact of the new restrictions could be assessed.
On Wednesday, the Department of Health recorded a further 1,217 cases and four more deaths with Covid-19, with 222 positives cases in the Derry City and Strabane council area.
There have now been 23,115 cases since the pandemic began – a quarter of which have been reported in the past week.
In the Republic, a further 1,095 new coronavirus cases were confirmed, as well as five additional deaths.
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