Fermanagh pharmacies will be well-equipped to “deal with an outbreak” of Coronavirus, that’s according to Health Minister Robin Swann who this week said detailed plans were in place across the country in case the virus becomes a pandemic.

In a statement to the House, Minister Swann told Stormont MLAS that as the number of incidents and positive cases increase there will be “a surge plan in place”.

“That plan has been developed with the Health and Social Care Board, working with the Public Health Agency and trusts. That will mean that, as coronavirus and the positive number of cases expand, we will have the capacity in the system to manage them.

“At some point that may — I say "may" — result in us having to scale back other parts of NHS delivery, but we are not at that stage yet,” he said.

“I do not want to concern people that this will bring the NHS to its knees in a very short space of time. It will not, because our Health and Social Care Board, our Public Health Agency and our trusts are preparing for those surge plans.”

Minister Swann said there are several negative pressure rooms “that are our initial response to locating a positive patient”.

“As numbers increase, we will look to not only expand the use of those rooms across the whole of Northern Ireland but to cohort patients and designate wards, especially for coronavirus-positive patients,” he said.

Speaking to the House, Sinn Fein’s Jemma Dolan said: “I am sure that the Minister will share my appreciation of all healthcare workers, including those in GP surgeries and community pharmacists, who work daily in the health service to provide these services”.

She asked: “Will the Minister provide reassurance that there are sufficient stocks of personal protection equipment (PPE) in the North to deal with an outbreak?”.

“In line with agreed procedures, I can confirm that front-line Health and Social Care, GPs and pharmacists will have access to appropriate personal protection equipment, as and when required.

When we were looking at a no-deal Brexit, the Department of Health stockpiled a number of essential medicines and various items. Other jurisdictions looked to discharge their stockpiles. We did not, and we will not do so now. Therefore, we have in place stockpiles of essential medicines and PPE. We will distribute it as and when required,” he said.

Minister Swann praised the efforts of NHS staff and appealed to the public to take heed of the warnings from health officials.

“If you have COVID-19 symptoms, please do not go to your GP or the emergency department. Phone your GP first, and if testing is necessary, that will be arranged. Our National Health Service comes into its own, not just because of its structure but because of the people whom we have working in it. “We can rely on them at this time. As the situation develops, their professionalism should not go unnoticed, no matter what level of the health service they work in,” he said.

Sinn Fein MLA for the area Colm Gildernew, the chairman of the health committee, described the situation as “fluid” and accepted that “it can change multiple times over the course of a day, never mind over a weekend or week”.

He asked: “Given that we are such a small island and that North/South interconnections, travel and interaction are part of the social and economic fabric of this island will the Minister agree that maximum cooperation and coordination, similar to the weekly COBRA meetings, between the health services North and South is now not only beneficial but essential?”

Minister Swann replied: “I put it on record that, although we have been involved in COBRA meetings at a UK level, the engagement between the Chief Medical Officers in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland has been second to none in the past few weeks regarding how we prepare for this and regarding information sharing between the Public Health Agency and the HSE in the Republic of Ireland.

“At a professional level, engagement has been ongoing for some time, and that has proven beneficial in recent days. The continuation of the communication between us and the Republic of Ireland is guaranteed because it is in all our interests to work together to tackle this,” he said.