Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has denied that “everything is off the table” when it comes to the further reopening of the economy in the coming weeks.
His comments come amid reports that Level 5 restrictions are set to remain in place until April, with tight restrictions continuing until at least early May.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Minister Donnelly said that the latest advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) was that it was too early to advise on how and when restrictions could be eased.
“Everything is not being taken off the table, but I think it is important to look at what has happened when we have come out of more severe restrictions in the past,” he said.
While different sectors were seeking to reopen and each on their own would probably not have an impact on disease transmission, the concern was that if society began doing a lot of things together that would then have an impact, the Minister explained.
Two uncertainties
Minister Donnelly said the two “big uncertainties” facing the country were the “horrible” UK variant and the supply of vaccines arriving into the State.
“We know that the UK variant is much more contagious and unfortunately, what we are also finding out now, based on research from the UK, which is relatively new information, is that it looks like the UK variant is also more severe both in terms of hospitalisation and fatality,” he said.
With regard to staycations, the reality was that nobody knew if they would be possible this summer, he added.
It comes as the Cabinet sub-committee on Covid-19 met representatives of Nphet on Thursday evening, as Ministers continued to work on finalising the Government’s revised “Living with Covid-19” plan.
Sources told The Irish Times that no further easing of restrictions is likely to be announced beyond the phased reopening of schools from early March, which Nphet said was “about the limit of what they can support”.
One senior source said it was now “out of the question” that restrictions would be eased to allow people to meet outdoors. Outdoor sports are unlikely to resume, while any reopening of the construction sector is also unlikely to be supported by Nphet.
The plan will have to be approved by the full Cabinet next week.
On Thursday evening, the State’s public health team warned of a plateau in the fight against Covid-19.
The number of contacts of confirmed new cases of Covid-19 is “drifting upwards” while test positivity rates and hospital admissions are “plateauing”, officials said.
