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Planned pub reopenings are in jeopardy due to new concerns from health bosses.
They warn that the eagerly anticipated reopening date of Monday, September 21, may have to be postponed again due to rising Covid-19 numbers.
Our top doctors at NPHET now fear the risk of the virus going wild for the second time since March.
Health chiefs told the government that they are seriously concerned about this tonight, as the latest figures revealed 196 new cases of coronavirus in one day.
But some ministers are arguing otherwise, saying the country has to get back on track and the reopening of all of society, including pubs, must continue.
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A special Cabinet subcommittee on Covid listened to both sides of the argument tonight and decided to postpone any major decisions until next Tuesday.
The ministers will meet for a full cabinet meeting next Tuesday, where a final decision will have to be made on the pubs reopening.
This is also where the new government roadmap to help us get through a Covid winter will be approved.
But in the meantime, the terrible news of another postponement for the bartenders will leave pub patrons crying nervously into their empty pint glasses all weekend long.
The number of new Covid cases registered in recent days has not decreased, with another 196 confirmed tonight.
And this led the experts from the NPHET (National Public Health Emergency Team) to recommend to the Government that that is why it was not a good idea to commit 100% to the reopening.
High-level sources in the government told the Irish Mirror tonight that the argument coming from the health chiefs is that it is unwise to name a date when there are still so many doubts.
With 10 days to go until the planned grand reopening of so-called ‘wet bars’ across the country, the argument is that this is a terribly long period in the virus cycle.
However, the strong argument against it is that we cannot keep some companies closed forever and that we must learn to live with Covid.
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It was also argued in government circles tonight that another postponement of the reopening of pubs, a third, would be the last straw for hundreds of pubs.
Rural politicians have been pleading with the government for over a month that the pub is an essential part of rural life in Ireland.
The six-month closure has led to a deterioration in the mental health of many rural bar-goers.
Some, like elderly farmers, have nowhere else to go to meet people, and there have been suicides related to the social void left by closed bars.
Another NPHET recommendation that was presented to the government last night concerns the number of people who can visit other people’s homes.
National health experts believe that cracking down on people who visit can help stop the spread of the virus.
But they don’t want to be too draconian about this, so the last recommendation from them in this area was just modified.
The new recommendation will still be that you can have six visitors in your home, but now they can only be from two different households, not three.
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