Covid-19: Ban on inter-county travel now in effect

Travel between counties is now prohibited following the introduction of new Level 5 Covid-19 restrictions on Sunday.

People who had travelled outside their county of residence for Christmas are not asked to return home immediately but should remain in their county once they do.

The advice on indoor visits has also changed, with people only allowed to receive visitors from one other household. This measure will remain in place until January 1st after which time, household visits will be banned completely.

Gastro-pubs and restaurants will remain shut having closed their doors on Christmas Eve and, while non-essential retailers are allowed to remain open, the usual Christmas/January sales have been deferred.

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It is understood the National Public Health Emergency team (Nphet) recommended in a letter last week that all non-essential retail outlets should close, with this and other restrictions to be considered by the Cabinet on Tuesday.

Nphet reported a record high 1,296 cases of Covid-19 on December 26th, the highest number recorded in a single day since the pandemic began.

It was the second day in a row that the number of daily cases passed the 1,000 mark, a level not seen since October 25th.

Death toll

Six coronavirus-related deaths were also reported on St Stephen’s Day, bringing the total to 2,200.

Northern Ireland reported 998 cases and 20 deaths as the North entered a six-week lockdown.

Under the latest restrictions in the State, gyms, leisure centres and swimming pools may remain open for individual training only and non-contact training pods of up to 15 may take place outdoors.

Hotel guests booked in over Christmas must check out today and hotels are now only allowed to open for essential non-social and non-tourist purposes.

Government members have continued to insist that schools will open as planned in January, however, sources have said that this position would be reviewed if daily case numbers accelerated into the thousands.

Golf and outdoor tennis can continue but no matches can take place except for professional and elite sports, horse, racing, greyhound racing and approved equestrian events behind closed doors.

Earlier this week, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly told The Irish Times that new variants of the virus from South Africa and the UK, combined with a rapid rise in infection rates across all age groups, meant "it's the most serious situation since I became health Minister".

Vaccine

Also on St Stephen’s Day, the first shipment of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine arrived in the Republic with the vaccination programme scheduled to begin on Wednesday, December 30th starting with frontline healthcare workers and nursing home residents.

The first batch of the vaccine is understood to contain 10,000 doses with the next shipment containing tens of thousands of doses due to arrive next week.

It is envisaged by the HSE that 30,000 nursing home residents will be vaccinated, having received the required two doses, by the end of January.

After frontline healthcare workers and nursing home residents are vaccinated, people over 70; other healthcare workers not in direct patient contact, people aged 65 to 69 and other “key workers” will be vaccinated in that order.

This will be followed by people aged 18 to 64 years with certain medical conditions; who are residents of long-term care facilities, and living or working in crowded settings.

Next to be immunised will be key workers in essential jobs who cannot avoid a high risk of exposure; people working in education, people aged 55 to 64, other workers in occupations important to the functioning of society and those aged between 18 and 54.

Inoculation

Internationally, Europe began its cross-border vaccination programme on Sunday after the first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine were delivered to EU member states. Countries including France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Portugal and Spain are planning to begin mass vaccinations, starting with health workers on Sunday. Outside the EU, Britain, Switzerland and Serbia have already started in recent weeks.

The next vaccine set for approval by the EU is the Moderna vaccine, with authorisation expected on January 6th. After that, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, which is considerably easier to administer as it does not require very cold storage as is the case with the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna jabs, is expected to get EU approval in early January.

However, it has been reported that the UK regulator could approve the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab within days.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said this weekend that mass inoculation against Covid-19 was unlikely to be possible until May or June as the vaccine will not be available in sufficient quantities until then.

“I think the first six months of 2021 will see improvements but we certainly won’t have normality in the first six months as we knew it,” said the Taoiseach on Saturday.