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Additional restrictions will be placed in Dublin on home visits, indoor gatherings and home visits, while pubs in the capital will remain closed under the government’s new five-tier coronavirus plan.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that the government’s medium-term plan Living with Covid-19 establishes “how we will live and how we will work with the virus.”
The plan includes a scale of restrictions from Level 1 to Level 5, with Level 5 being the most severe. Different tiers can be implemented based on conditions over the next few months. Currently the country is in Level 2.
Despite ministers expressing serious concern over a dramatic increase in cases in Dublin in recent weeks, the Cabinet has withdrawn from moving the capital to Level 3, instead adapting a number of additional conditions for the capital unchanged level.
“The current Covid figures in Dublin are very worrying and the Government has today decided to introduce additional measures (for the capital),” said Mr Martin.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that pubs in the rest of the country will reopen as planned on September 21 and that 200 people will be allowed to attend events in large open-air stadiums, with the possibility of more events attending events in one stadium. like Croke Park.
He said the incidence of the virus has increased tenfold in Dublin in the last month and that unless there are preventive measures, there will be “a second wave of hospital admissions, ICU admissions and possible deaths.”
Under Tier 2 of the plan, 50 people can attend an indoor wedding, six people can visit a home, and 15 people can meet in a garden.
In international travel, the State will adopt the European Union traffic light system that will be finalized in Brussels on October 13.
Under the EU travel plan, the government will eliminate the 14-day quarantine period for non-“green list” countries and instead adopt a test system at airports and ports for passengers starters.
The plan says it will have to ensure that this additional burden of testing does not affect current plans to extend testing and tracking of the coronavirus.
The Government announced that the Pandemic Unemployment Payment will be open to new applicants until the end of the year, an extension of the previous closing date.
It was also announced that the Budget of the Winter Plan would be 600 million euros, eight times more than last winter.
“In fact, as a country we managed to keep the virus down, but it is a longer road than we originally thought. We have to move on, but we will get there … All measures combined will keep the virus low and protect health and lives, ”said the Taoiseach.
Earlier Tuesday, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said officials wanted to make sure that “the trends they see in Dublin, which is a rapid rise in the virus, do not spread to the rest of the country.”
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, addressing the cabinet meeting, said the new measures would be about “how to take the initiative of public health doctors to do what we know works to stop this virus, to allow the people live their lives. ” and protect the healthcare system, keep schools open, protect jobs, protect lives. That’s what it will be about today ”.
New official health figures show that Covid-19 infections in Dublin continue to rise. There have been 95.1 cases of the disease per 100,000 people in Dublin based on 14-day incidence rates, considerably higher than in the next county, Louth, with 66.7 cases per 100,000.
Overall, the incidence rate nationwide is 50 cases per 100,000, according to new statistics released by the Center for Health Protection Surveillance Tuesday morning.
The National Public Health Emergency Team reported another 208 confirmed cases of coronavirus on Monday night, including 108 in Dublin. There were no new deaths.
The number of hospitalized patients has gone from 36 to 60 since the beginning of the month, while the number of patients in intensive care has risen from six to 11.
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