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Senior government figures fear that if there is a widespread infection here with the new Covid-19 variant that has been detected in the UK, existing restrictions will be insufficient and a strict lockdown will be needed to stop the spread of the virus.
This could bring the country back to restrictions imposed last March, sources fear.
While Taoiseach Micheál Martin highlighted yesterday that schools would open as planned in January, sources also say the position should be reviewed if case growth accelerates to the point where thousands of new cases are reported each day.
970 new cases were announced last night, and that number is expected to exceed 1,000 today.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar also said that the nonessential retail situation, which is currently allowed to remain open, would be reviewed if the number of cases continued to increase rapidly.
Alarm
There is growing alarm in the government that cases will skyrocket in the next few days, after public health officials told ministers yesterday that cases are increasing by 10 percent a day.
Ministers were told on Monday that the growth rate was 6.5 percent, but yesterday senior officials from the National Public Health Emergency Team corrected it and told ministers that it was now 10 percent.
The Health Minister said yesterday at the cabinet meeting that they could be analyzing 1,900 new cases a day in a week, assuming the growth rate did not increase significantly.
Nphet is scheduled to meet today to consider the latest trends and will subsequently provide advice to the government. Sources expect the group to recommend that nonessential retail be closed and that the country adopt the full level five restrictions.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne show Wednesday morning, Mr. Martin called the new variant a “game changer”.
Meanwhile, Transport Minister Eamon Ryan has defended the pacing of the vaccination program and the latest round of Covid-19 restrictions, saying the goal was to provide time for the vaccine to roll out and thereby protect the country.
A sure January was “our resolution,” Ryan said Wednesday morning. However, he cautioned that it would take time to distribute the vaccine.
Ryan’s comments come a day after it was announced that the state will enter its third lockdown on Thursday, Christmas Eve, as a series of restrictions will take effect between then and the new year in an attempt to control the floods. levels of Covid-19 infections.
“We need to minimize the damage,” Ryan told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
The government will continue to monitor and review the situation, but cannot give “false expectations” that this will be a short three-week period of restrictions, he said.
“In all likelihood it will have to continue until we are in a safer place,” he said.
“Everything we’re doing is evidence-based,” he said of the decision to allow nonessential retail to remain open. “We don’t see any signs of transmission from the retail sector.”
Ryan said the industry had operated “very carefully” to date and also provided 40,000 jobs.
There was also no evidence of gymnasium cases that were important as they gave people the ability to maintain their physical and mental health.
However, Ryan said that if the numbers associated with the retail sector started to rise, the government would have to review the situation.
“We have to pay attention to public health advice,” he told the program.
All the island
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald repeated calls for an all-island approach to Covid restrictions.
When asked on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland whether stores in the Republic should remain closed after Christmas, as will be the case in Northern Ireland, Ms McDonald said: “Well yeah, our central premise is that to keep anyone of us safe on this island, we have to keep everyone safe. I thought it was a matter of basic common sense, that on a small island with a relatively small population mass, we are a single unit for public health purposes. “
When asked again if nonessential retail in the Republic should be closed as of Saturday, Ms McDonald said that “from the beginning” (of the pandemic) she had been calling on the “Dublin government” to spearhead a approach to all islands.
“I support Dublin and Belfast to act together and have the single all-island approach that we need to keep people safe,” he said.
Regarding the reopening of the schools (North and South), Ms. McDonald said that the schools would have to open safely and the situation would have to be assessed closer to the date they were to reopen.
McDonald expressed disappointment that the Northern Executive had not decided to stop flights from the UK. “We will push again for this matter,” and he hoped the Taoiseach would assist Sinn Féin in this effort.
The party leader said she supported the reimposed restrictions (in the Republic), but said the guidance was “useless” unless the restrictions were “properly enforced and monitored.”
The “north and south” test-and-trace systems had to be strengthened, otherwise they would leave the public “always vulnerable.”
Restrictions
Taoiseach Micheál Martin announced the restrictions Tuesday in a televised speech from the steps of government buildings after the cabinet approved the measures.
As expected, bars and restaurants will close starting Thursday, as will hair salons and beauty salons. The government has pledged that schools and nurseries will reopen as planned after Christmas, and retail outlets will be allowed to remain open, although they will be told not to hold sales after Christmas or January.
The gyms, leisure centers and swimming pools will remain open and you can continue training outdoors. But sports matches cannot be held apart from elite ones.
Inter-county travel will be banned from St. Stephen’s Day, but people who have already traveled for Christmas will not be asked to return home. However, once they return home from their visit, no further inter-county trips can be made.
Home visits by members of two households may continue until December 26, but will then be reduced to a single household. After January 1, home visits will be completely prohibited.
Later, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that although the decisions would be reviewed in mid-January, people could expect the shutdown to last until early March.
Another 970 new cases of the virus and another 13 deaths were registered on Wednesday.
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