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The group tasked with rolling out a Covid-19 vaccine in Ireland will meet for the first time on Monday amid growing hopes that a working vaccine will be available in a few weeks.
The government task force is expected to recruit business and project management experts to help ensure rapid distribution of the first available vaccines.
Regulatory approval for a vaccine could be issued in the US in mid-December after the first emergency use authorization request was made in recent days. It is expected next month to make a decision by European regulatory bodies on the application from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and a German research partner.
The chair of the task force, Professor Brian MacCraith, has promised that the group will develop a strategy to inoculate the population “urgently and completely.”
The government faces an intense week of decision-making as it finalizes a plan to come out of lockdown next week and manage the pandemic through the Christmas period and beyond.
Two stages
Although final decisions have not yet been made, the reopening of social and business life is now expected to take place in two stages, with a cautious lifting of some restrictions next week, and – if the number of new infections does not increase significantly in the next few weeks, a new reopening before Christmas.
The number of new infections fell again Sunday night as the sudden surge in daily cases that had alarmed public health officials last week slowed in recent days.
With 318 new cases reported Sunday night, the trend is down again. The seven-day moving average is now 375, the lowest level since early October.
The decrease in the number of cases will encourage the Government to decide in the coming days on lifting the restrictions, but with no prospects now that the number of daily cases will fall to the target of 50-100 set by public health officials. , the National Public Health. The Emergency Team (Nphet) is likely to demand extreme caution during the Christmas period.
The options will be discussed when the Cabinet meets on Monday, followed by a Cabinet subcommittee meeting on Monday night. High-level figures from Nphet, including medical director Tony Holohan and HSE director Paul Reid, are expected to attend that meeting.
Hotel pressure
The leaders of the three Coalition parties are likely to discuss the issue when they have a pre-Cabinet meeting tonight.
A special Cabinet meeting is expected later this week, probably Friday, to agree on the plan to come out of the shutdown.
A major problem that will be resolved in the next few days will be the situation of the hotel industry. While no decisions have been made yet, it is believed that so-called wet pubs, which do not serve food, are unlikely to be allowed to open. The fate of restaurants and pubs serving food is a decision at stake. If allowed to open, it is expected that they can remain open rather than face closure again in January.
In the coming days, representatives of the hotel industry will exert intense pressure on the ministers and TD. In an open letter sent to Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Sunday, more than 470 hospitality and event firms advocated for the reopening of their sector, saying there was “no clear evidence that the sector is disproportionately treated in opening decisions. or closure, compared to other parts of the economy. “
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