Mr. Paul Reid:

I acknowledge that this is a heartbreaking time for people, in various scenarios, and not being able to have their loved ones with them whether it is a birth or other very sad or difficult occasions.

This is done on a hospital-by-hospital basis. We are seeing an increasing trend of healthcare workers being infected with Covid or having to isolate due to being close contacts or otherwise. As a result, we are also seeing an increasing trend of our staff being absent due to Covid-related issues, and that is what we need to protect against. Our lead, Dr. Peter McKenna, has been in dialogue with the maternity hospitals over the past few days and weeks to understand what leeway it is possible to give. They do have to make clinical judgments on a site-by-site basis, however, and I appreciate that that is very difficult.