Ireland's lockdown exit will be dictated by data, not dates, the Tanaiste insisted this morning – refusing to reveal if the Government is targeting specific numbers before starting a reopening.
Leo Varadkar this morning said he understands there are a "lot of people depressed" after the Government announced a six-week Level Five extension on Tuesday.
But he insisted that "there are grounds for optimism" – laying out the four factors that will inform decision-making around reopening society.
"Essentially, there are four tests that we're going to apply – obviously based on advice from public health doctors and scientists," he told RTE's Morning Ireland.
The Government will assess the R number, the number of people in hospitals with Covid, the pace of the vaccine rollout, and the influence of variants on the pandemic.
Yesterday, the Taoiseach said the Government is taking a cautious approach to allowing different areas of society to return.
"I want to make sure that when we ease each particular restriction, we take a careful approach to ensure that when we open something, it stays open," Micheal Martin told the country in a state-of-the-nation address.
Mr Varadkar this morning said that after discussions with the Chief Medical Officer and Acting Chief Medical Officer, "the strong advice that we have from them is that it's actually not a good idea to set exact metrics.
"It's more about the trends," he said.
"We saw in December how quickly this can go in the wrong direction, and it was the trends there that we need to keep an eye on."
He said the Government is hoping to see the number of Covid-19 patients in ICU fall to half of what it is now over the next month.
And he added that the vaccine rollout offers real hope that the end of the pandemic could be in sight.
Once people over 60 and under-60s with an underlying health condition are inoculated, over 98% of the job will be done, Mr Varadkar added.
"We may really see the vaccines making a real difference – in terms of hospitalisations and people getting sick, and deaths, as opposed to cases – in May or June.
"And that might put us in the position where we can make decisions that we can't make now."
