To ask the First Minister and deputy First Minister why they did not hold regular COVID-19 press conferences during the summer recess when Northern Ireland had the highest COVID-19 infection rate in the UK.

The Executive remains committed to raising awareness of Covid-19 and its spread and encouraging compliance with the latest public health advice in order to save lives.

A wide range of communications channels and approaches are continuously in play in order to reach and connect with as many people as possible.

This includes the use of advertising campaigns; nidirect and other stakeholder websites; traditional media and social media platforms.

A new multi-channelled advertising campaign ‘‘Let’s keep moving forward safely’ launched on 14th June and has been seen or heard over 58 million times, meaning the average adult will have seen or heard the campaign messaging approximately 39 times.

To date, 11.5million users have visited the COVID-19 portal on nidirect and there have been 31.2million page views.

Ministers have undertaken regular media interviews, particularly after Executive meetings when changes have been made to the Covid Regulations, to ensure that the public is kept fully informed and to convey the most up-to-date advice.

Ministers have also engaged actively with the Assembly, providing detailed Oral and Written Ministerial Statements to provide updates on the current situation and outline key decisions.

Dedicated communications for the deaf community has continued with signed statements published on Executive social media channels.