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Closing Northern Ireland to travelers from the rest of the UK would have serious ramifications, the First Minister said.<\/p>\nClosing Northern Ireland to travelers from the rest of the UK would have serious ramifications, the First Minister said.<\/p>\n
The new strain of coronavirus has probably already arrived, Arlene Foster added, but warned against threatening supply chains in response.<\/p>\n
She said ministers were very concerned about the highly infectious mutation and tests were ongoing.<\/p>\n
The DUP leader added: \u201cIt is a very simplistic thing to say, \u2018let\u2019s close Northern Ireland off\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat has ramifications and as First Minister I have to take all those into account as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have always tried to be proportionate and balanced in everything that I have done through this crisis, and I am going to continue to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Stormont Executive is due to meet on Tuesday morning to discuss its pandemic response.<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in has urged its power-sharing partners the DUP to agree to an immediate response and expressed concern over flights arriving on Monday into the North.<\/p>\n
Ms Foster said she was awaiting advice from Northern Ireland\u2019s attorney general and more guidance from health officials.<\/p>\n
She told UTV: \u201cIt is very important that we hear the public health advice on all of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she was awaiting a paper from Health Minister Robin Swann indicating the risk posed by people travelling into the North.<\/p>\n
Those in the highest level of restriction in England, Tier 4, are already barred from travelling to Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
She said she understood the risk posed by travelling was \u201csmall in nature\u201d compared to other matters and warned supply chains could be affected.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it is small we have to level that up against the proportionality argument, in other words, what harm is it going to do if we stop people travelling into Northern Ireland,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n