A ROADMAP TO FREEDOM
■ All retail to resume by second week of May ■ Inter-county travel ban ends in early June ■ Poll: Majority back vaccine rollout by age
CABINET ministers have revealed a draft timeline for how the country will open up again over the coming weeks and months.
The welcome news comes as Covid-19 indicators continue to fall and a more encouraging picture of the vaccine rollout programme emerges.
One minister told the Irish Mail on Sunday that outdoor retail and click and collect services will reopen at the beginning of next month. Cabinet sources also indicated that the ban on inter-county travel will be lifted by the beginning of June.
News of the impending end of lockdown comes as a new Ireland Thinks-Irish Mail on Sunday poll published today reveals six in 10 people back the Government’s policy of rolling out the vaccine based on age instead of prioritising teachers and gardaí.
Our poll also reveals that the vast majority of people (87%) intend to take the
vaccine, in spite of recent negative publicity surrounding links between the AstraZeneca jab and a rare number of blood clot cases.
Meanwhile, Government sources said outdoor dining and hospitality will be given the green light by the second week in June at the latest.
While indoor dining is scheduled to get the go-ahead before July, a decision has yet to be made on reopening those pubs that don’t serve food.
One Cabinet member said: ‘If things continue as of now, click and collect and outdoor retail will reopen at the very start of May. And the rest of construction at that point too.’
Cabinet sources said there will be a gap for a period of a fortnight before hairdressers and barbers are allowed to reopen their doors in the third week of May.
Another minister added: ‘Two weeks would elapse and from then the rest of retail will open. And then a week later, the third week of May, personal services as they call it, hairdressers barbers whatever, they will open.’
News of the rapid easing of restrictions over the next 10 to 12 weeks will come as a huge relief for people after months in lockdown.
Senior Government sources believe all the vital Covid indicators – infection rates, hospital
‘We haven’t discussed so-called wet pubs’
admissions and ICU occupancy – will all continue to fall next month as the vaccine rollout ramps up.
The declining number of fatalities continued yesterday evening when it was confirmed four people have died after contracting coronavirus, with 420 new cases of Covid-19 confirmed by the Department of Health.
A member of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) told the MoS: ‘By June, a lot of people will have been vaccinated and hopefully the short, sharp shock of the hotel quarantine will have kicked in.
‘So almost everything else will be opened in June,’ said the NPHET member.
A minister said full intercounty travel is set to resume by the beginning of June.
They told the MoS: ‘You could see inter-county travel at the start of June. You’re already kind of seeing inter-county travel because I’m allowed to travel around my county and 20 kilometres across my county border.
‘So I don’t think it’s that big a deal to already say you can travel, because we’ve already been travelling
across county boundaries.
They said: ‘Once the limit is beyond five kilometres anyway it is difficult to legally enforce.’
There is still pressure within Government to see outdoor dining resume at the end of May. As it currently stands, more households will be allowed to socialise before the end of May.
Government sources said outdoor dining and hospitality
will be given the green light by the second week in June at the latest.
One minister said: ‘Indoor dining will also be permitted before the end of June. You’ll also see hotels and the B&Bs reopening around the third week and indoor dining before the end of the month. The only thing we haven’t discussed or got any information on is the so-called wet pub.’
A NPHET source said people
will be able to enjoy more freedom from next month.
They told the MoS: ‘There’ll be an increase in what we could do outdoors in the month of May.
‘Two or three households would be allowed meet and very limited outdoor dining at end of May, you could have coffee shops serve coffee outdoors. And you could let people meet up in their gardens.’
Government sources said
they have not held any definitive discussions about the timeframe to reopen ‘wet pubs’, or bars that don’t serve food.
One source said: ‘By the time all the pubs and restaurants are allowed to serve indoors we will start facing the problems we saw last summer, with one pub serving chicken goujons and the next not.
‘We still, however, have no firm solution to what to do with wet pubs,’ the source said.
Some ministers also said mandatory hotel quarantine would end in June.
A source told the MoS: ‘The legislation that established the quarantine expires in June. I think there are some errors that have been there. For the moment it’s short, sharp intervention.
‘Yeah, trying to get the country reopened, get the people vaccinated, but then get the heck out of
Dodge... like it’s not medium-term, it’s not a policy we should be messing around with for too long.’
After months of lockdown, the
mood across the country yesterday was optimistic with thousands of people descending on parks and public spaces to enjoy the spring
sunshine on the first full weekend people were allowed to travel within their counties or within 20km of their home, across county borders.
There was a festival feel at Skibbereen Market in Co. Cork, where children played and danced to music as people made the most of the freedom that was denied to them since the beginning of the year, when the Level 5 restrictions were introduced.
Guitarist Naoise Azzopardi entertained onlookers, in particular little Aryon Temiraeva, who happily showed off his moves to the crowds.
Aryon’s mother Stella said it was ‘wonderful’ to see the local community coming together after months of being apart.
She told the MoS: ‘We had a fantastic time, it was really great to see people out and about and
businesses opening up again.
‘It [the market] was full of vibrant fun, people coming together to enjoy each other’s company and the food and fresh produce.
‘The kids loved it, they were all dancing together to the music and looking at the chickens and ducks.’
Stella said lockdown had been extremely difficult for parents of young children.
‘It was very hard seeing the playgrounds and crèches closed and having to walk your child away… they don’t understand restrictions or why they can’t go over and play. It’s very tough,’ she told the MoS.
Little Cuan Burke O’Brien was also making the most of his newfound freedom. His mother Hillary, who is originally from Canada, said: ‘They all had a great time, it was lovely to see them dancing and enjoying themselves.’