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The severe restrictions on business and social life came into effect for the second time this year at midnight on Wednesday, when political pressure on the government intensified over a failure in the Covid tracking system.
The restrictions, which will be in effect for the next six weeks and are among the most severe in Europe, will be enforced by new powers for gardaí that are expected to take effect next week, according to the government.
Thousands of commercial premises and other businesses closed their doors Wednesday night, while hundreds of thousands of workers will now be required to work from home starting Thursday.
Amid criticism from the opposition, both Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Health Minister Stephen Donnelly admitted that they learned of the tracking failure only when they read The Irish Times story published Tuesday night.
The Irish Times reported that thousands of close contacts of positive Covid-19 cases over a three-day period would not be contacted by the HSE because the contact tracing system was overwhelmed with cases last weekend. Instead, the HSE asked 2,000 to 2,500 people who had tested positive for Covid on Wednesday to tell their close contacts to contact their GPs immediately to request a test.
More tensions
On Wednesday night, in a sign of new tensions between politicians and officials, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar told Fine Gael TDs that it was “very unfair” for the HSE to “turn” the responsibility of resolving the tracking controversy onto general practitioners.
At a meeting of the Fine Gael parliamentary party, Mr. Varadkar said that while the testing capacity held up well, the contact tracing side of the system was not doing so well. One person present said the Tánaiste said he was disappointed to hear an HSE spokesperson “throwing all this at them.”
But a senior HSE source questioned Mr. Varadkar’s characterization, saying that GP organizations had been involved in discussions on how to resolve the difficulties.
“GPs are not asked to look for contacts, they are asked to answer calls,” the source said. After the person who has had a positive test has telephoned close contacts, they are asked to contact their GP to arrange a test.
The HSE source said the gap in contact tracing was not considered a “major operational problem” and had not come to light when ministers and senior officials were discussing the new lockdown, announced Monday night.
On Wednesday, the National Public Health Emergency Team announced another three deaths from Covid-19 and 1,167 additional cases. The North registered five deaths and 1,039 cases.
Separately on Wednesday night, the Cabinet approved the publication of a bill to prohibit evictions during the period of Level 5 restrictions. The proposals will be debated in the Dáil on Thursday.
Closing costs
And the Finance Department confirmed that Finance costs from the six-week closure would add to this year’s budget deficit.
An additional 1.25 billion euros will be borrowed following the announcement of the closure, moving the deficit from 6.2% of GDP to 6.5%. The Finance Department insisted on Wednesday that the deficit movement “is still well in the range of other countries.”
This year’s budget deficit is expected to be about 23 billion euros, the department confirmed, an increase from the 21.6 billion euros estimated in last week’s budget. The Government will spend about 80,000 million euros in the operation of the State this year.
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