Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said that existing Covid-19 restrictions should be given “a chance to work” before any new restrictions, including closing schools, are considered.
As the Irish Times reports, Mr Varadkar said there has been an “explosion of cases beyond any of our modelling” and that it was “not possible to rule out additional restrictions”.
“But we have the existing restrictions a chance to work,” Mr Varadkar told RTÉ radio’s This Week programme. He said it was the “firm intention of the Government to open the schools”.
“We don’t have any advice from public health authorities that we should close schools,” he added though he said there would be further assessments of the situation in the coming days.
ASTI president Anne Piggott said that her members were “very, very worried” about returning to school.
“We want assurances on safety in schools,” she said.
Mr Varadkar also said that intensive care beds in private hospitals could be used by the public system if they are needed. Asked if there was a danger that hospitals would be overrun, Mr Varadkar said: “I wouldn’t go that far yet.” However, he said “we need to turn off the tap”.
Political decision
“If patients continue to be admitted at the rate they’re currently being admitted, then we will run into difficulties,” he said.
Asked about delaying the second shot of the vaccine in order so that more people could avail of the initial shot, Mr Varadkar said: “That is not going to be a political decision.
“It would be very much guided by the advice of the National Immunisation Advisory Council on that.
“I know that’s what they’ve decided to do in the UK, it’s what they’ve decided not to do in the US and it is a judgment call.
“Do you give 200,000 people full protection, or do you give 400,000 people partial protection, and we’re going to rely on the advice from the experts on vaccines before making a decision on that.”
Regarding whether the Government had made the wrong decision at the end of November by opening hospitality venues, the Tánaiste said that “nobody can answer that definitively . . . perhaps the right decision would have been not to accept the Nphet advice and not go to Level 3 at all.”
He said maybe they should have extended Level 5 for a longer period, but you can only make those decisions based on the advice and information they had at the time.
