END OF THE NIGHTCLUB
... if we don’t find a vaccine
NIGHTCLUBS will not be opening ‘any time soon’ and probably not until a Covid-19 vaccine is found, Government health leaders have declared.
Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said that even though the clubs are scheduled to reopen at the same time as pubs that don’t sell food, he does not see how this would be possible.
The Government has already delayed the reopenings to at least August 10, and yesterday Tánaiste Leo Varadkar warned that there was no guarantee they will be back in business on that date.
The stark warnings come as a leading publican called for a ban on alcohol sales from supermarkets, to stop the spread of Covid-19 at house parties. Pádraig Cribben said prohibition should be looked at, as fellow members of the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland had seen a rise in house parties and
shebeens around the country. ‘If the Government is really serious about tackling the house parties, I think they are really going to have to look at whether they are going to allow alcohol to be sold in supermarkets,’ he said.
‘I am asking that question, because if the issue is around house parties and young people congregating, you have to tackle where the issue is coming from,’ he told Newstalk radio.
And speaking at the National Public Health Emergency Team’s [NPHET] weekly briefing last night, Dr Glynn warned: ‘It is very difficult to see a nightclub open in the context of where we are at with this disease in Ireland and internationally.’
When asked if a vaccine for the coronavirus would be needed before nightclubs are reopened, he said: ‘I don’t want to say that in an absolute sense, but certainly it is hard, from a public health perspective, to see nightclubs open any time soon, given where we need to have our priorities.’
Dr Glynn warned that internationally the opening of nightclubs had been linked to serious spikes in Covid-19. In May, South Korea nightclubs were blamed for a second wave of the virus, after the country had successfully flattened the curve.
While one in every five cases of the virus is associated with foreign travel, Dr Glynn said the main contributory factor is the behaviour of people already here.
‘The vast majority of cases here involve contact between people here. So it is up to us in this country to control the spread of this disease,’ he said, and warned that
‘This is not an easy decision to make’
Ireland could record up to 170 new coronavirus cases per day within weeks if worst-case scenarios transpire.
Professor Philip Nolan, who models the progress of the virus for the Government, said: ‘In the next couple of weeks we are in quite a precarious situation in terms of where this disease will travel.’
One further death and 21 additional cases were announced yesterday. Prof. Nolan said the reproductive rate of the virus was somewhere between 1.2 and 1.8.
By August 10 the number of new infections could be 20 or 30 a day if the rate is the lower value, he said. If it is 1.8, the daily tally could be 150-170 a day, he said.
‘We are in an uncertain situation,’ he said.
Speaking in the Dáil yesterday Mr Varadkar said that while there is ‘no doubt that the vast majority of publicans in our country are responsible people’ the decision to reopen pubs will be based on the levels of Covid-19.
‘I do need to be clear that what we are saying is that pubs and nightclubs will not open any sooner than August 10… it will depend on the numbers and how the virus behaves, to use Tony Holohan’s term, between now and then.’ Health Minister Stephen Donnelly warned that reopening pubs now could ‘materially add to the possibility of a second wave’ of Covid-19. He said: ‘All pubs are being treated the same, that’s the public health advice. This is not easy. This is not Fears surge: Dr Ronan Glynn yesterday an easy decision to make. We are following the public health guidelines. Essentially we are prioritising the opening of schools, the opening of healthcare facilities, the opening of the economy over the accelerated reopening of the pubs.’
But Mr Cribben said he believes that pubs, as a controlled environment, are far safer for people to drink in than the big house parties seen in recent weeks, and the shebeens which were springing up all over the country.
He said: ‘There is no shortage of alcohol. Alcohol is not the problem. It’s the uncontrolled environments in which it is being drunk.’
He added: ‘This is a decision made by politicians who appear divorced from reality about life in rural Ireland.’
Donall O’Keeffe, Chief Executive of the Licensed Vintners Association, said: ‘It has to be acknowledged that the pubs who are closed
‘The onus is on them to help’
were not responsible for the growing levels of infection reported by NPHET over the last week. Yet it is those same pubs who are being asked to take a further financial hit.’
Mr O’Keeffe called for additional grant aid for pubs, a continuation of the wage subsidy scheme, a cut on the VAT rate for the alcohol served, and the abolition of commercial rates.
He said: ‘The Government made this decision, so the onus is on them to help – if they want an industry which includes 7,000 businesses and employs 50,000 people to survive.’
In Donard, Co. Wicklow, Paul Moynihan, of Moynihan’s Bar, said he was ‘deflated’ having spent the week getting ready for Monday’s opening, when he was looking forward to seeing his customers again. He said he felt the sector was a ‘scapegoat’ for the actions of
irresponsible people, and that pubs in areas with low Covid rates should be allowed to reopen.
Christy Walsh, of the Well Bar in Listowel, Co. Kerry, said the few pubs that had opened in tourist towns to serve food were not able to handle the crowds of Irish holidaymakers flooding into hotels and caravan parks. ‘It’s going to lead to a lot of house parties. If all the bars were open, we would be able to cope,’ he said.
Michael O’Donovan, owner of the Castle Inn in Cork, said he was ‘bitterly disappointed’ by the decision to postpone the reopening of pubs, saying that many would rely on the trade in late July and August, especially with so many Irish people planning staycations this year. ‘It will be a major blow to many of my colleagues in the pub trade, and they will need serious help,’ he said.
Independent TD for Kerry Michael Healy-Rae asked what advice there was for allowing gastro pubs to open and not ordinary wet pubs. He said: ‘NPHET are saying they have looked internationally at what has happened in public houses throughout the rest of the world, and that when they opened there was a spike or increase in cases of the virus.
‘However, we are missing one very important point here. We have always said that Irish pubs are unique, that our country pubs are unique. They cater to smaller groups of people and they know their customers. All they wanted to do was open up in a small way so that local people could come in from the countryside to have a drink.’ He said there was ‘an awful lot of difference’ between Dame Lane and Ballinskelligs or Portmagee.
Independent TD for Roscommon-Galway Michael Fitzmaurice questioned why ten people could meet in a house but not in a pub.
‘Anyone who had a bull’s notion about rural Ireland would know that in most pubs in rural Ireland during the week there might not be four or five people,’ he said.