Michael Cousins Acting Managing Editor

Good afternoon

Welcome to your afternoon update and Coronavirus bulletin from the News Letter

Sadly four further deaths of patients who had tested positive for Covid-19 have been reported in Northern Ireland. The Department of Health said there had also been 903 new confirmed cases in the last 24-hour reporting period. On Monday morning there were 345 Covid-19 patients in hospital, with 28 in intensive care.

A DUP Assembly member has branded Stormont’s Covid-19 restrictions as draconian and undemocratic. Paul Frew’s remarks came as he pressed deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill on how long emergency powers taken by the Executive would remain in place. Ms O’Neill rejected his characterisation as she made clear the powers would remain in place “for as long as necessary” to protect public health.

In other news:

* A west Belfast man jailed for the murder of a prison officer is set to mount a legal bid to overturn his conviction.
Christopher Robinson, 51, is serving a minimum 22-year sentence for the killing of Adrian Ismay in March 2016.

* Two Belfast brothers have had an emotional meeting with an RUC officer they saw shot twice in the head as children and had assumed to be dead. 
And astonishingly, former Sergeant Jim Craig, now 72, explained to the News Letter that he was saved by the fact that his hair was too long.

* Chapter Chat: Royal Black’s Centenary Circuit hailed as ‘tremendous success’.
The leader of the Royal Black Institution has urged people to make a last-minute donation to the ‘Centenary Circuit’.

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