Dear Department of Health (Northern Ireland),

The Executive has suggested that the reason for implementing new restrictions on visiting private households is because the recent increase in Covid-19 cases is attributable to virus transmission being more prevalent in domestic rather than public settings such as pubs or restaurants.

For example the Belfast Telegraph reported on 10th September: "Mrs Foster said the spread of Covid-19 was happening in households. Insisting that the "villain is in our households" and not in businesses"

The Executive press release of 21st September also stated: "The restrictions on domestic settings is a proportionate measure at this time – the risk of the virus spreading is greater in unregulated environments."

Given the First Minister's public statements, I assume that contact tracing statistics have demonstrated that domestic settings are the primary source of virus transmission. However, such data does not appear to be available on the online Covid-19 dashboard.

Therefore, my FOI request is as follows:

Please provide a breakdown of the location of transmission/infection for cases of Covid-19 in Northern Ireland from 1st September 2020 to 21st September 2020.

Please see example format below (my list is not exhaustive, please add more categories if I have omitted any).

Location of transmission/infection - Number of Cases
Pubs -
Restaurants -
Workplaces -
Private households -
Shops -
Schools -
Hospitals -
Care homes -
Etc.

I trust this request is clear, I am not sure of the exact terminology used in contact tracing so I am content for this to be interpreted as "suspected location" if necessary.

Yours faithfully,

Mark Houston