Ireland will begin the partial and gradual reopening of its economy as planned from Monday, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Friday, calling for increased discipline from the public if a further relaxation is to be triggered in three weeks’ time.
The country’s plan for re-opening is staggered on five phases, which are to be staggered as follows.
- 18 May (phase 1)
- 8 June (phase 2)
- 29 June (phase 3)
- 20 July (phase 4)
- 10 August (phase 5)
The government still advises that one should Stay Home as this is the best and only way how one can control the spread the Covid-19.
Leaving home is only advisable if one has to
- to travel to and from work, if your work cannot be carried out from home
- to shop for essential food and household goods
- to attend medical appointments and collect medicines and other health products
- for vital family reasons, such as providing care to children, elderly or vulnerable people, but excluding social family visits
- for farming purposes, that is food production or care of animals
- to engage in physical exercise within 5 kilometres of the home, adhering to strict 2 metre social distancing
- to meet with friends or family within 5 kilometres in groups of no more than four, adhering to strict 2 metre social distancing
- to escape domestic violence
“As the restrictions ease and we come into contact with more people, the opportunity for the virus to spread increases. So, self-discipline and personal responsibility will become more important, not less,” Varadkar told a news conference.
“In three weeks’ time, I fervently hope to be here to announce that we will move to Phase 2. Nothing is guaranteed. The only thing that is inevitable is the spread of the virus unless we push it back every day.”
Building sites, garden centres and repair shops are among the limited group allowed to resume operations in the first of five three-week phases. People will also be permitted to meet in non-household groups of four outdoors, and play golf or tennis.
The government said visits to such stores should be limited to essential supplies, with retailers encouraged to continue to provide online services to minimise footfall,
Other businesses such as restaurants must wait until the end of June to open their doors again, with hotels to follow in July, pubs in August and schools in September in the roadmap Varadkar’s caretaker government laid out on May 1.
Since then, the number of new daily cases has roughly halved to as low as 107 this week, and the number of people infected by someone who has tested positive – the so-called “reproduction rate” – has fallen to 0.4-0.6, well below the key threshold of 1.0.
The number of confirmed cases among Ireland’s 4.9 million population stood at 23,827 on Thursday, with 1,506 deaths.
The damage to the economy has been swift and severe, with the unemployment rate, including those receiving emergency COVID-19-related jobless benefits, shooting up to 28.2% from 4.8% in two months and the state supporting around half of the labour force.
Highlighting the difficulty that workers such as builders may face, there have been 10 clusters of two or more coronavirus cases in meat plants, which have remained open, with close to 600 cases, health officials have said.
Amongst other measures, Ireland will make it mandatory for incoming travellers to provide the address at which they will self-isolate for 14 days, having previously asked for such details but not required them, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Friday.
Varadkar said he also discussed the travel restrictions with his British counterpart Boris Johnson on Friday to make sure the neighbouring countries’ similar quarantine measures are aligned and that their officials would work “to get that right”.
“It will be mandatory for people to fill in that declaration and fill it in correctly and we are going to examine means by which it can be enforced.
CD eNews Agency report based on Reuters / RTE / Irish Government / Irish Times
