Virologist Dr Cillian de Gascun has said that the Cabinet should be vaccinated as they are key workers and decision makers.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show he said that the Cabinet were important decision makers in the middle of a pandemic.
As The Irish Times reports, Dr de Gascun was responding to a question about whether Taoiseach Micheál Martin should be vaccinated if he goes to Washington DC for St Patrick’s Day.
As a decision maker the Taoiseach should be kept safe, he added.
No decision has been made yet on whether Taoiseach Micheál Martin will travel to Washington DC, to meet US president Joe Biden for St Patrick’s Day, officials said last week.
They said consideration of all possibilities, including a virtual event, was continuing.
A Government spokesman said the decision would be based on public-health advice, in both Ireland and the United States.
Mandatory quarantine
Infectious diseases expert Professor Paddy Mallon has said that if the mandatory quarantine measures were implemented properly then that would go a “significant” way towards correcting “the mistakes of the past”.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, he also said there needed to be a level of “bio security” at the border between the Republic and Northern Ireland.
Travel and the new variants of the virus were the key issues in stopping the transmission of Covid-19, he added.
New Covid-19 restrictions targeted at holidaymakers, including increased fines for those leaving and mandatory hotel quarantine when they return from some destinations, are likely to be part of the Government’s plans to tighten external controls as the country prepares to slowly reopen.
Ministers and officials said on Tuesday that the Government intended to introduce legislation next week which would provide for mandatory quarantine in hotels for incoming travellers, a measure the Government spokesman said could be extended to returning holidaymakers.
