Reacting to the Health Minister`s Urgent Statement to the Assembly on Friday 9 October 2020, Ulster Unionist Party leader, Steve Aiken OBE MLA said:
"The comments from our Health Minister should be a wake-up call to those who aren`t taking the threat from Covid-19 seriously. Alarm bells should be ringing.
“Covid-19 continues to present a grave threat to public health and continued ambivalence towards the regulations and guidelines from some sections of our society will inevitably lead to tighter restrictions, more hospital admissions and inevitable deaths.
“The statistics about admissions to hospitals are stark. If you don`t want to be responsible for your Health Service being overwhelmed, then we collectively need to abide by hands, face and space and observe province wide and localised restrictions. If we don`t, our Health Service may well be toppled over the edge."