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Dublin’s pubs will be closed next week in another blow for innkeepers.
Soaring Covid figures up to 30 times higher in Dublin than other counties will force the government’s hand this morning.
Sources said cabinet ministers felt they had no choice but to treat Dublin as a special case after a marathon meeting of the Covid subcommittee slashed the numbers on Monday night.
As a result of its large caseload, Dublin faces tougher lockdown restrictions.
The Cabinet will have a breakfast meeting on Tuesday where it is expected to approve the Covid subcommittee’s recommendations.
The special group of ministers, including Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, decided that the increase in the number means that Dublin will have to be treated differently.
(Image: Gareth Chaney / Collins)
208 new cases were announced on Monday and Dublin continues to have far more cases than any other country or region, with 108 of those new cases.
The 14-day average in Dublin, 89.1 cases per 100,000, is twice the national average of 46.8 and more than ten times higher than the incidence in the country’s second largest region, Cork, at 8.5.
It’s 30 times the rate in Sligo, where it’s just 3.1.
All of this has led the government to conclude that Dublin will now have to clamp down on stricter restrictions.
(Image: Gareth Chaney / Collins)
Ministers will not formally approve the tighter restrictions regime expected for Dublin until after a cabinet meeting this morning.
But Tánaiste Leo Varadkar took the cat out of the bag early Monday when he revealed that he believes the massive increase in the Capital means the county will have to be treated differently.
Varadkar indicated that there will be special treatment for the Dubs when he said: “The situation in Dublin is different from the rest of the country and that will require a different response and that will be taken into account in any decision we make.”
Tuesday morning will see the Government outline the details of its new medium-term alert plan to see us for the next six to nine months of Covid, Living with Covid.
It comes as the HSE told doctors across the country that they can advise patients that the 14-day quarantine for Covid will now be reduced to 10.
The new roadmap will see the country administered through a five-level alert system, with level one with the least restrictions and level five with the most severe.
Although the government hates the term blockade, level five would revert to something similar to what we saw when the national blockade was introduced at the end of March.
Sources have said that the country will launch at level two on Tuesday, but that Dublin will have to settle at level three for now due to the rising numbers.
Social distancing and meeting restrictions, to varying degrees, will apply at all levels of the plan.
Leo Varadkar explained why Dublin will now have to be treated differently.
He said: “The truth is that the situation in Dublin is worrying.
“We have seen a situation where the incidence of the virus was as low as five or six per 100,000 for 14 days and now it is about 80.
“So depending on how you count it, it’s a 10- to 20-fold increase in the incidence of the virus in Dublin in the space of a few weeks.
“And while that has not yet resulted in a dramatic increase in people in hospitals, ICUs or deaths, the truth is that it will probably go in that direction if we do not overcome it.
“And we look at what is happening in Madrid and Spain and we don’t want to go there.”
Mr Varadkar added: “The situation in Dublin is different from the rest of the country and that will require a different response and that will be taken into account in any decision we make.
“I live in Dublin and I don’t want any additional restrictions placed on my constituents unless absolutely necessary.
“And as Minister of Business and Employment, I don’t want more businesses to be closed or people laid off for the second time in a year.
“But at the same time I am absolutely convinced that the best economic policy is to put public health first.”
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