Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said that existing Covid-19 restrictions should be given “a chance to work” before any new restrictions, including closing schools, are considered.

Mr Varadkar said there has been an “explosion of cases beyond any of our modelling” and that it was “not possible to rule out additional restrictions”.

“But we have the existing restrictions a chance to work,” Mr Varadkar told RTÉ radio’s This Week programme. He said it was the “firm intention of the Government to open the schools”.

Hospital Report

“We don’t have any advice from public health authorities that we should close schools,” he added though he said there would be further assessments of the situation in the coming days.

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ASTI president Anne Piggott said that her members were “very, very worried” about returning to school.

“We want assurances on safety in schools,” she said.

Mr Varadkar also said that intensive care beds in private hospitals could be used by the public system if they are needed. Asked if there was a danger that hospitals would be overrun, Mr Varadkar said: “I wouldn’t go that far yet.” However, he said “we need to turn off the tap”.

“If patients continue to be admitted at the rate they’re currently being admitted, then we will run into difficulties,” he said.

Asked about delaying the second shot of the vaccine in order so that more people could avail of the initial shot, Mr Varadkar said: “That is not going to be a political decision. It would be very much guided by the advice of the National Immunisation Advisory Council on that. I know that’s what they’ve decided to do in the UK, it’s what they’ve decided not to do in the US and it is a judgment call – do you give 200,000 people full protection, or do you give 400,000 people partial protection and we’re going to rely on the advice from the experts on vaccines before making a decision on that.”

Asked if the Government had made the wrong decision at the end of November by opening hospitality venues, the Tánaiste said that “nobody can answer that definitively . . . perhaps the right decision would have been not to accept the Nphet advice and not go to Level 3 at all, maybe extended Level 5 for a longer period, but you can only make those decisions based on the advice and information you have at the time.”

Earlier, Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan said the Government could reduce the limit on people's exercising distance from 5km to 2km if Level 5 restrictions do not lower the number of Covid-19 cases sufficiently.

Mr Ryan told Newstalk radio there were other measures that could be taken in addition to Level 5 restrictions such as reducing travel from 5km to 2km as happened during the first lockdown if infections did not decline.

“That is for a week or two’s time if the numbers are not starting to flatten off and then decrease,” the Minister said.

Vaccines

He said vaccinations should be carried out 24 hours a day, seven days a week, once the Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccinations become available in Ireland.

Asked to comment on criticisms that Ireland was being slow in rolling out the vaccine, Mr Ryan said the HSE had used the first few days to “test the application” and ensure people’s confidence in the rollout system. From Monday, 40,000 vaccinations will be carried per week with an initial focus on the 17,000 frontline healthcare workers and 75,000 staff and residents in long term nursing homes, he said.

While the HSE previously said vaccinations would be given out on a 9 to 5, five days a week basis, Mr Ryan said vaccine services would be extended to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, once the European Medicines Agency approved the Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines. Once these are available "it's going to have to be 24/7 in my mind with all hands on deck", he said.

“There’s 1,700 people already been trained up to roll it out so there’s no shortage of resources, no shortage of impetus to get this out. It’s in our interest to get it delivered to as many people as quickly as possible, as safely as possible.

“We’re not going to be stockpiling any vaccines. In other words, as a soon as we get them we’ll be deploying them.”

On travel from the UK to Ireland, Mr Ryan said meetings would be held on Sunday to discuss the ban which is currently in place until January 6th. Further precautionary measures, such as requiring travellers to take a PCR test before leave the UK along with isolating upon arrival were being considered, he said.

In the coming weeks only essential workers such as truck drivers and other haulage operators bringing vital supplies should be travelling between the UK and Ireland, said the Minister.