We hope to reopen schools in early May

Simon Harris tells John Lee about his lockdown plans, his pride in the Irish people... and how his young family is coping

SCHOOLS could partially reopen in just over two weeks, after the May Bank Holiday, once the lockdown period ends, but they won’t be back to normal; and small-scale sporting events will also resume.

As part of a wide-ranging interview with the Irish Mail on Sunday, Health Minister Simon Harris was asked what hope parents could have to see their children back at class after May 5, and what were now the priorities of the Government.

‘I’m not going to be making decisions based on my gut, so we’ll take the advice of our public health experts, but instinctively I would love to see a point whereby our schools would come back somewhat, for a load of reasons,’ he said. ‘For the mental health of our students, the mental health and wellbeing of parents who have kids at home for quite a period of time and also the general wellbeing that comes from our kids getting educated.’

The Irish Mail on Sunday revealed last week that the Government plans to open up schools partially after May 5, the date set for review of the lockdown by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. In other countries, such as Denmark, schools have already begun to reopen.

Mr Harris, speaking at the Covid-19 HQ in the Department of Health, said: ‘So, we have the benefit in Ireland of being able to watch what other countries are doing, yeah, so Denmark took the decision this week to start reopening schools. So we’ll be watching that very closely, it will be a call for Joe McHugh [Education Minister] to make and Government colleagues but grounded in public health, that’s definitely one [measure that is a priority].

Asked if he was working along the lines, revealed by the MoS, whereby children could return to school, ‘for a day or two a week even, to allow kids pick up their home schooling. Is that one of the things you’d look at?’, he said: ‘You’re more likely to see something like that.’

However, he said that going back to normal schooling in the immediate aftermath of the May 5 is unlikely. ‘You could see a situation where you’re trying to get exam students in schools or a situation where you try to let people go to school for a day or two a week.’

However, with many working families caring for pre-school children, while often continuing to pay creche fees, Mr Harris was able to provide little comfort.

‘Creches are going to be harder. It’s hard to explain to young babies how to physical distance and physical distancing is at the core of this here,’ he said.

‘So, until we have a vaccine or an effective treatment, we’re going to have to continue like we’re doing here to try and keep our physical distance. And the younger the kids are and the more of them there are, the harder it is to do.’

Mr Harris said the GAA was right to suspend the 2020 football and hurling championships – but he does believe smaller scale football games can resume.

‘I think what the GAA did this week was pretty sensible,’ he said. ‘The public health team haven’t made a determination on this yet but it’s likely that it’s not going to be possible to see these mass gatherings taking place any time soon.

‘I think though that’s very different to a couple of kids having a kickabout in a local club. I’m conscious as the health minister that we have a job to do; we’ve got to not let our foot off the pedal. We’re making progress but we’re nowhere near where we need to get to yet.’

However, the Government is increasingly aware of the strain on families during this lockdown, he said. ‘But, but I’m also conscious that I have a responsibility to mind the overall wellbeing of people, and your mental health as well, and it’s not normal what we’re asking people to do.

‘It’s necessary, it’s entirely necessary, but to tell people they must stay indoors, except in these very exceptional circumstances, is a very hard thing for people to do over a sustained period of time.

Mr Harris has no complaints about his workload during this crisis and believes the HSE is performing very well, while acknowledging its failings in the past. ‘I’m still energised. You’re working in a building where you’re seeing so many incredible people – like [Chief Medical Officer] Tony Holohan – working on a 24/7 basis. People are here on Saturdays, just like it’s a Monday, and working away, and you’re just happy to be part of that team, people are working so hard. The HSE as well, an organisation that often gets the kind of bad reputation and legitimate scrutiny of its work. You’ve very little to complain about when you’re in my role.’

Mr Harris’s reason for optimism on relaxing the lockdown comes from a reduction in the Reproduction Rate (R-rate) of the coronavirus. ‘The Reproduction Rate, it used to be at 4.7. So this basically meant for every one person who got Covid-19, they infected 4.7 more people, and then they infected 4.7 more,’ he said. ‘We got it down as a country to about 2.5, if you remember around the time we closed the schools.

‘Professor Philip Nolan, who heads up our modelling group, was able to say that it’s somewhere near 0.7. That’s really good news. It basically means for every one person who’s getting the infection they’re infecting fewer. The lower we can get that, in terms of a game changer, the better.

Mr Harris also said that the decline in those occupying intensive care unit beds is encouraging. ‘The number of patients in ICU beds has declined again.’

‘And we’re after seeing a small reduction of people in hospital so those metrics are good, they’re encouraging. They’re only happening, though, let’s be quite frank, because of the sacrifices people are making, staying at home.

‘Kids might be allowed to have a kickabout’

‘And if we were to reverse that or reverse it too quickly. We could undo that progress.’

Mr Harris said that without the lockdown and the massive national effort, the numbers of those infected and dying of Covid-19 would be truly terrifying.

‘If the R-rate had stayed at 2.7% we would now have 800 people in ICU today, we’d have 1,700 people that would have died in our country, and by the first week in May we would have had 12,000 deaths.

‘The reason I say that is, despite the fact we’ve lost people in our country – and we think of them and their families and every death is an awful tragedy and our hearts go out to them – we the Irish people have actually saved so many lives. People need to know that their efforts, their sacrifices actually saved thousands of lives in Ireland,’ he said.

Mr Harris responded at length to criticisms by the opposition, including prospective Fianna Fáil coalition partner Stephen Donnelly, that party’s health spokesman, that the Government had been caught on the hop over the management of Covid-19 in nursing homes.

‘I think the hard and painful reality is, when you look at nursing homes or other residential care settings, it is extremely difficult to manage the virus. That’s not a reason, by the way, not to try and do it. But it is challenging. You have lots of people living together, sometimes not able to even have their own room,’ he said, adding: that ‘a lot of misinformation’ has been put out suggesting that action was only taken in March on the nursing homes.

‘Hiqa, who are the nursing home regulator, do a great job. In fact, they’ve been on the national public health emergency team chaired by Tony Holohan since the start, the head of the HSE met Nursing Homes Ireland, their rep body in February and guidance was issued as to what nursing homes should do, and in fairness, they’re working to try to do it.’

He added: ‘What I would have thought would be a more interesting point for Deputy Donnelly to make, is the fact that, in this country, we’re actually making sure that we don’t forget about the people living in nursing homes. In some countries, not that far away, they’re not testing people living in nursing homes and they’re not recording the deaths of people living in residential settings for people who don’t die in hospital.’ He said the Government is taking actions that might make life politically difficult, but ‘that’s okay’.

‘If you want to eradicate this virus, you’ve got to make sure you eradicate it everywhere, and you’ve also got to make sure you leave no one behind.

‘There is absolutely loads more to do and this is why we’re not resting on our laurels.’