A 46-YEAR-OLD woman has been charged with breaching Covid-19 regulations in Strabane, making her the first person in Northern Ireland to be charged with such an offence. 

The woman will appear before the Magistrates’ Court in Derry tomorrow. The charges will be reviewed by the Public Prosecution Service. 

The Police Service of Northern Ireland gave no specific details of how the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 were breached, but said that that incident occurred in Strabane in Tyrone. 

The Strabane and Derry area has some of the highest rates of Covid-19 on the island. Latest figures for the region put the seven-day incidence rate at 478.5 per 100,000. 

Yesterday, Northern Ireland recorded 726 cases of Covid-19. On Friday, 934 cases of the virus were confirmed, prompting fears that tighter restrictions might be needed. 

The NI chief scientific advisor Professor Ian Young has said the Executive will have little alternative but to opt for a full lockdown in the Derry City and Strabane area if soaring infection rates were not suppressed. 

Households across Northern Ireland have already been barred from mixing indoors in private homes.

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