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Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has pointed out that a third wave of restrictions may be necessary in the New Year after the Christmas holiday period.
Mr Varadkar did not call it a lockdown, but said that “a third short period of tightened restrictions may be necessary in January or February, but we must try to avoid a prolonged period.”
During a discussion on Covid-19 before the government’s decision on the situation after the Level 5 lockdown, Mr. Varadkar said: “I think we should ease the restrictions next week, but not so much that it forces us to go back to the Level 4 or Level 5 “. for an extended period in the New Year ”.
He said they couldn’t ignore North-South travel and said the incidence of the virus in the North is a multiple of what it is in this state and so is the death rate.
Northern Ireland makes its own decisions under the Belfast Accord, he said, “but we would deny if we do not recognize that the less intense focus of the virus there from the start has its consequences.”
The Tánaiste added that they had very good data on the incidence of cases for international travel but did not have similar data for north-south travel.
“This is a gap in our data that needs to be closed as it affects our ability to make evidence-based decisions.”
Opening the debate, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that “we are not yet in a position to return to normality or get closer to normality.
“Our focus will continue to be to go as far as possible, but not further.”
Mr. Martin said that “the second wave is by no means over. If there is one thing we know now, it is that taking the virus for granted is the basis of its spread. “
Noting that not all sectors will reopen, the Taoiseach said that “the reality is that for some activities the orientation will be that there is too much risk, and for all activities there are basic guidelines and restrictions on how we act that we must respect.”
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said “common sense and compassion” should be applied to all Christmas family trips and gatherings, especially Christmas, especially for families who have had a particularly bad year, be it by grief or by older relatives who are socially isolated.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said that Ireland has been registered through the EU for five of the different vaccines for which approval is currently being sought. He said the 14-day infection rate had risen from 310 per 100,000 four weeks ago to 109 on Tuesday. “That is the biggest drop anywhere in Europe.” But he said the infection’s reproduction rate had gone from 0.6 to 0.8.
And he told Dáil that there are currently 98 groups in residential care settings, including 48 in nursing homes.
Risks evaluation
Social Democrats TD Róisín Shortall said that there had to be a proper risk assessment and that there was a need for certainty for businesses, including pubs that serve food and general retail, which require a two-week notice to reopen.
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said thousands of student nurses and midwives were working on the front lines and in March the government accepted that they should be paid, but now they were working again without pay.
Independent Verona Murphy said the Level 5 restrictions were to increase ICU and hospital bed capacity and to ensure that testing and tracing capabilities were put in place “to keep us out of lockdown” in the future. He noted that WHO was against such blockades as a solution.
Aontú TD Peadar Tóibín said the government’s decisions on restrictions meant that 150,000 cancer appointments with 200,000 women waiting for cancer screening. Today, 480 people have been diagnosed with cancer. Today twenty-four people died of cancer. Today twenty-seven people died of heart disease and stroke and these health problems have not had the necessary resources due to government restrictions. “
He also said that organizations dealing with suicide had informed the Minister of Health that there had been an increase in the number of people committing suicide.
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