Lockdown restrictions on hospitality businesses in Northern Ireland will be extended for one week after a lengthy political wrangle exposed Stormont divisions.

Days of political rancour - ahead of tomorrow's deadline for a decision before current regulations lapse - had left businesses in limbo.

The deal, which was tabled by Economy Minister Diane Dodds, was supported by the DUP, the Ulster Unionist and Alliance ministers.

SDLP minister Nichola Mallon abstained, and Sinn Féin voted against it.

Hair and beauty salons and premises without an alcohol licence like cafes and coffee shops will now reopen next Friday, 20 November, with hours restricted to 8pm.

Pubs and bars will be permitted to sell sealed off-sales from that date while restaurants, pubs and hotels can lift their shutters a week later, on 27 November.

Mrs Dodds told the BBC's Newsline programme: "What we have to do is bring certainty to people in their lives in the run up to Christmas.

"We have tried to bring forward a proposal that is balanced and proportionate and that the health minister supported. That is the only way forward for an Executive of five parties."

Sinn Féin voted against the proposal because it ran contrary to the guidance from Stormont's medical and scientific advisers to extend the circuit-break in its entirety for two weeks.

It was outnumbered around the ministerial table as ministers faced mounting public criticism over the delay.

The party's Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill said: "The expert health advice from the chief medical officer (Dr Michael McBride) this week could not have been clearer that any move away from a two-week extension of the current interventions would result in excess deaths.

"That's stark. It means more lives being lost."

DUP leader and First Minister Arlene Foster said: "The choice became the quick but wrong decision or to fight and get us to a better or balanced decision.

"Sometimes compromise does not come easy and it has to be fought for to achieve it."

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Ms O'Neill warned of the repercussions. She told Newsline: "We potentially are coming back to this situation again before Christmas. This is not a position that any of us want to be in."

Mrs Dodds said it was not her intention to return to the same situation as before Christmas.

She added: "No matter what we do or do not do, there may be need for further interventions at a further stage, maybe even before Christmas.

"The virus is new and unpredictable and difficult to work with.

"We have to make sure that there is a pathway for people to earn their living and put food on the table and that we learn to live with the restrictions of this virus."

UUP health minister Robin Swann backed the proposal as a way to avoid all the regulations lapsing at midnight tomorrow.

It built on Alliance Justice Minister Naomi Long's earlier hybrid plan to break the deadlock by adding a definite date when the rest of the hospitality sector can open its doors.

The meeting - the fourth in as many as days - is understood to have included some fractious exchanges between Sinn Féin and DUP ministers.

It is thought that at one point DUP First Minister Arlene Foster told her Sinn Féin counterparts: "I won't be taking any lectures from Sinn Féin on excess deaths."

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said: "Today the Executive agreed to a two-week extension of the regulations with coffee shops, cafes and close contact services opening a week earlier.

"While the SDLP was pleased that the additional financial support we have been pushing for was also agreed, SDLP minister Nichola Mallon abstained on the vote as she could not in good conscience support measures that fell short of protecting against plunging us into more restrictions just before Christmas - even two weeks would have risked that."

Stormont's Department of Health announced today that a further 15 people with Covid-19 have died. It takes the official death toll to 825.

It also confirmed an additional 548 cases of the virus. There have now been 45,241 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Northern Ireland.

Meanwhile Northern Ireland's Euro 2020 qualifying campaign ended in heartache as Michal Duris' extra-time goal condemned them to play-off final defeat at home to Slovakia.

Additional reporting: Tommie Gorman