The chief executive of the Letterkenny Chamber of Commerce Toni Forrester has said there will be longer term implications for many businesses in Co Donegal as a result of a more restricted alert level being introduced tonight.
Ms Forrester said it will be a tough day for many hospitality businesses as they reduce or close services.
She called for additional government supports including for the commercial rates waiver to be extended and changes to the Pandemic Unemployment Payment as well as the Employee Wage Subsidy Scheme.
She said this has implications for cash flow as the money is not arriving into bank accounts quickly enough.
Level 3 restrictions aimed at bringing the spread of the coronavirus under control will come into effect for all of Donegal from midnight tonight.
The county now has the highest rate of Covid-19 in the country, with the Stranorlar/Lifford electoral area recording an incidence rate of 336 cases per 100,000 of the population.
Forty-two of the 324 new cases of Covid-19 notified to the Department of Health yesterday were in Donegal.
Derry and Strabane have the highest rates of the virus in Northern Ireland.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Meanwhile, ahead of a Brexit preparedness online conference today being organised by the Chamber along with the Derry Chamber of Commerce, Ms Forrester said that the added bureaucracy and uncertainty of Brexit poses further difficulty for business.
The conference will examine the likely consequences of a no-deal scenario.
Ms Forrester said that after years of seamless travel of goods and services across border, it will be difficult to change working practices.
The idea of a border is something people have worked really hard to avoid, she stated.
She said that a free trade deal is the only real way to go, adding that many small businesses are not prepared for the additional burdens that they will face from next year.
The managing director of the Strabane-based sportswear firm O'Neills Kieran Kennedy said a no-deal Brexit will have huge implications for his company and he hopes to get some clarity at today's conference.
Mr Kennedy said that his company crosses the border with goods up to eight times and the additional burdens of duties and customs declarations could make the business unsustainable.
"You cannot prepare for a no deal Brexit and the uncertainty is causing major problems for us all," he stated.
But he said he remains positive that a deal will be done.
