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Christmas should be celebrated in late January to avoid a third spike in COVID-19 cases, according to a senior immunologist.
While NPHET has yet to release a guide on how the Irish should celebrate Christmas, Taoiseach Micheal Martin previously said that we should be able to “celebrate Christmas in a meaningful way” if the current lockdown reduces the numbers.
COVID-19 cases are falling faster than anticipated and while there are no prospects for an early exit from the current lockdown, there is high hope that the country could emerge with Level 2 or 3 restrictions on December 1.
But Dr. Tomas Ryan, associate professor at Trinity College’s School of Biochemistry and Immunology, believes we could end up with 1,000 cases a day again in January if we reopen in December.
Dr. Ryan believes the country should delay the celebration of Christmas until the end of January to try to achieve a zero COVID situation, and warned that Christmas this year would have to be different for each family to stop a surge that could take us back a third confinement.
“I think we can get back to a normalcy that looks pretty much like life in most of Australia in early January, which would mean Level One or Level Zero restrictions for January, if we get rid of this now,” he said.
“One way to do this would be to delay Christmas until the end of January and have a real Christmas and a real holiday then.
“I don’t think the government has communicated reasonable expectations about what our Christmas will be like.
“It’s certainly not going to be anything like the Christmas we normally have anyway.
“The important thing is that now we are all locked in, we are paying a high price anyway and we want to make sure we get the right benefit and we will not get it if we have another lockdown in January.
“It certainly won’t be worth it if we end up having another lockdown in January or early February that I think should be avoided in any way we can.
“Even if we cut down to 100 cases a day on December 1, I think it would be much more profitable and enjoyable for everyone in Ireland if we cut cases down to single figures or to zero and then kept them there so that we could open and stay open on as long as possible. “
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