New restrictions from midnight as government prepares to publish Covid plan
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New restrictions will come into effect from midnight as the Government prepares to publish its medium-term plan to deal with Covid-19.
Cabinet will today sign off on the plan approved on Monday by its subcommittee on the virus.
Green Party leader and Communications Minister Eamon Ryan will attend remotely as he restricts his movements. A member of Mr Ryan's household is awaiting a Covid-19 test.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly today said that the plan represents a "roadmap about how we suppress the virus".
He said: "[It's about] how do we move locally, how we move quickly, how we take the lead from the public health doctors to do what we know works to stop this virus to allow people live their lives and protect the healthcare system, keep the schools open, protect jobs, protect lives. So that really is what today is all about."
Mr Donnelly said that the experience of local lockdowns in the midlands had shown that the virus could be suppressed.
"So what we learned from the good work of the people in Kildare, Laois and Offaly is that if you move locally and if you move quickly and if the community gets behind the public health doctors and their advice, the virus can be suppressed and be suppressed very quickly.
"Right now, as we know, the virus is growing quickly around the country, we need to move fast, we know how to do it. We've done it before we will do it again.
"We've got to keep the schools open. We've got to keep the hospitals open and keep people safe and make sure we save a lot of lives."
Mr Donnelly said the plan would look ahead into the next six to nine months.
Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath said that the moves made in Dublin would be "proportionate", but said the numbers in the capital were "going in the wrong direction".
"It's very evident that the numbers in Dublin are going in the wrong direction, unfortunately, so measures to address that are required," he said, "because we don't want to get back to a point where we are seeing the number of people in hospital and in ICU growing significantly. We can't afford for that to happen.
"Steps will be taken but they will be proportionate and it will remain open to Government in the weeks ahead to review the approach again."
The plan will see counties and regions ranked from 1-5 on their handling of the virus, with restrictions applied accordingly.
Public health expert Dr Gabriel Scally has said he is pleased to see that the Government is not adopting a ‘one size fits all’ approach to Covid-19 restrictions.
Dr Scally told Newstalk Breakfast he was looking forward to seeing details of the Government’s national plan for the virus which will be published today.
Having a strategic plan was “buying time” and would help keep the virus from vulnerable people, he said. Dr Scally pointed out that it was still unknown what long term effect the virus could have on children and their health. Anything could manifest itself in due course, he warned.
If there was no vaccine for some time, then society would have to adopt a different approach and we would have to change the way we live, he said.
However, he was confident that there would be a vaccine as 180 different vaccines were being worked on.
“I am confident that science will come up with a solution.”