Nightclubs, pubs and restaurants will have new closing hours of 12 midnight from this Thursday under plans agreed by Cabinet.
Ministers have also approved new advice for people to work from home where they can from Friday.
It comes as an Ennis GP says covid certs should be used “across the board”.
In the face of very stark warnings from NPHET Ministers have moved to ease the spread of the virus.
Less than a month after lifting the closing time restrictions on the hospitality sector, they’re being reimposed from this Thursday.
Bars, restaurants AND nightclubs will have to close at midnight, beginning on Thursday, though there will be different rules for hotel bars, while Covid-19 passes will be required for cinemas and theatres, but NOT for gyms, barbers and hairdressers.
An Ennis hairdresser says it would have been an insult to her industry if the government decided to extend vaccine certs to the sector.
Bridget Haren of Bridget Haren Hair and Beauty in Ennis says hairdressers have gone above and beyond to ensure salons are safe environments.
A new work from home order will be issued from Friday, meanwhile, but the language will say it has to happen ‘where practicable’, accepting some businesses won’t be able to accommodate that.
A booster vaccine campaign for over 50s has been agreed, with the Taoiseach telling the meeting there will be capacity for 230,000 jabs a week.
There’s also to be changes to rules around close contacts, meaning once there is a confirmed Covid case in a household everyone in that home will have to stay at home for five days, and will be sent antigen tests.
An Ennis GP has described current infection rates as “frightening”, saying more people are receiving a positive result for covid now than in January last at the peak of the pandemic.
Dr Maire Finn says, however, that the vast majority of those being treated in ICUs are unvaccinated, with those who have received the jab mostly experiencing mild symptoms.
She’s warned that there are many other respiratory viruses circulating in the community at the moment which are making people very sick and that this is compounding the current situation in hospitals.
Dr Finn believes the extension of Covid certs to other sectors would be a progressive move and she says it should be across the board.
