SUMMER IS CANCELLED

Childcare: All creches stay shut Socialising: Pubs will remain closed Sport: No GAA championships

THE nation is set for a summer of restrictions with no pubs opening in the near future and no large-scale GAA fixtures.

But there is the prospect of an easing of the current lockdown with schools reopening for a couple of days a week and small retail outlets opening to customers again, Government officials have told the Irish Mail on Sunday.

However, that is based on the contingency that the spread of Covid-19 continues to be curbed by May 5, and even then there are no plans for creches to reopen or for large-scale gatherings to be allowed.

It comes as the Department of Health revealed yesterday that a further 33 people diagnosed with Covid-19 in Ireland had died – 14 females and 19 males with a median age of 82. Thirty victims were from

the east of the country while three were located in the west.

As the nation faces into three more weeks of restrictions on movement, Department of Health officials and other Government agencies will monitor Denmark, Austria and other countries over the coming period and then finalise a ‘priority list’ of how the lockdown can be eased, if at all.

The Government believes if the pace of the spread of coronavirus slows enough by May 5, with strict social distancing maintained, it can then consider:

÷Partially opening schools to allow children meet their teachers for one or two days a week to pick up homework;

÷Allowing older people to exercise outside their homes for certain hours of the day, in certain areas; ÷Allow small retail outlets and garden centres reopen on a model that has been working at supermarkets;

Small scale, single building construction could be allowed to start again;

Allow small-scale, outdoor local sports activities to start agin.

However, senior Government sources said that there are a number of activities that are ‘highly unlikely’ to be allowed resume.

The chances of the GAA football

‘We’ll have to monitor it very carefully’

and hurling inter-county championship starting in their traditional fashion are ‘very low’.

Pubs will not be reopening in May. Because of the difficulties of social distancing on these premises their closure is likely to continue through the summer.

There are no plans for the easing of restrictions on creches. According to a senior Government source: ‘You can’t impose social distancing on toddlers.’

However, senior Government sources say the order of kickstarting any activities are dependant on how Ireland’s infection rates fare in the coming weeks and how countries who are reopening manage.

This was hammered home yesterday by Health Minister Simon Harris at a press conference. He said the lockdown could start to be eased once the reproduction rate of the virus had been slowed down enough to justify it.

He said once it was clear that the basic reproductive number ‘R0’ – a term that describes the average number of people an infected person infects – had fallen below one and was approaching zero, restrictions could start to be loosened.

‘The closer you can get that to zero and the more the virus is suppressed, that means the more you have freed up your ICU capacity,’ Mr Harris said. ‘And it means that if you did see an increase, which inevitably you’re going to when you lift your restrictions, you’d have the capacity within your ICU, within your hospitals, within your general practice, within your testing system.’

Mr Harris said there was no manual for the lifting of restrictions, but that Ireland would be guided by other countries such as Denmark who are already ahead of Ireland in slowing the spread of the virus.

‘When we do it we’ll have to be honest with people that we’re going to do it, we’re going to monitor it very carefully and if it doesn’t work, we’re going to have to revert,’ Mr Harris said.

The virus has dropped from four average infections per person at St Patrick’s Day, to 2.5 at the end of March, and is now at one. Department

sources last night reiterated Ireland’s advantage: ‘As the Minister for Health pointed out we were one of the last countries in Europe to contract this virus.

‘So we’ll be looking at the impact in China and in Europe of reopen

ing. Denmark is starting to open schools next week, Austria is starting to open shops.’

The source added: ‘The first thing you will look at, “have we now got the virus to a place where we can now alter the restrictions”.

If you meet that test, the second test would be, “is it safe to do that and it will give you the health, wellbeing and economic benefit”.

Prioities would include ‘the schools, the exam year, smallscale construction. Open the garden centres. Supermarkets are open, that is a model. We don’t have a list, that is the kind of thinking. If we make enough progress over the next three weeks.’