Varadkar rules out return to mask wearing despite increase in Covid cases

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has ruled out mask wearing being made mandatory this winter even though the latest variant of Covid-19 appears to be spreading more quickly than other recent variants that have affected people in Ireland.

Mr Varadkar said that he believed Ireland was moving into a different phase of the pandemic with new variants developing all the time, but he very much doubted that there would be any need to return to the highly regulated situation that made mask wearing mandatory back in 2020 and 2021.

“We’re in a very different phase when it comes to dealing with Covid. It’s become a virus that is going to be with us forever and there will be waves of Covid just like there are waves of flu, but I think it’s very unlikely that people will have to wear masks.

“People might be advised to wear masks in certain circumstances, certainly if they have symptoms or they’re just recovering from Covid, but I don’t think a legal mandate will come back,” said Mr Varadkar when asked about the spread of the latest variant of the virus during a visit to Cork.

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According to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) a new variant of Covid-19, Eris (EG.5.1) is spreading faster than other variants, but the centre said that while the new mutation is highly transmissible, there is no evidence of it causing more severe infection.

Last month, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), headquartered in Solna in Sweden, classified Eris as a variant of concern and said it was likely that the variant will contribute to “increased transmission in the coming weeks.”

However, the ECDC said it was unlikely “the levels will reach those of previous peaks observed during the Covid-19 pandemic” while it also said it was unlikely that the variants were associated with any increase in infection severity compared to previously circulating variants.

Last month, Chief Medical Officer Prof Breda Smyth said the rise in Covid-19 in recent weeks in Ireland can be attributed to the Eris variant as the HPSC confirmed that Eris had impacted on the health service with the new variant detected in hospitals as well as care homes.

But Prof Smyth pointed out that it was normal for a virus to evolve and mutate. “We see increased waves of Covid activity every few months as new subvariants emerge and they will continue to emerge so we should not be alarmed by them,” she said.