Hairdressers and barbers to reopen at end of the month

Recommendation from Nphet to be considered at Friday’s Cabinet meeting

Hairdressers and barbers should reopen at the end of the month, the National Public Health Emergency team has recommended.

At a meeting on Thursday Nphet finalised details of the remaining two stages of the plan to reopen the economy following restrictions put in place to stop the spread of coronavirus.

The Cabinet is due to make a final decision on foot of Nphet’s decision tomorrow (Friday) but it is understood that the reopening of hairdressers and barbers will be brought forward to June 29th from July 20th.

Earlier this month Taoiseach Leo Varadkar cautioned that the plan to reopen the economy was contingent on the virus being kept under control. He said hairdressers could be allowed to reopen earlier than previously planned and he described as “too slow” the Government’s initial five phase roadmap to reopen the country from the coronavirus lockdown by August.

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At a briefing on Thursday afternoon following a meeting of Nphet, Prof Philip Nolan, chair of the group’s Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said that Covid-19 is at a very low level in the State and very stable.