Leo Varadkar says that a fourth wave doesn't mean another lockdown

Leo Varadkar has said that a fourth wave of Covid-19 doesn't mean we're heading for another lockdown.

The news comes after dire warnings from Dr Tony Holohan and the National Public Health Emergency Team that further restrictions couldn't be ruled out.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin added that Covid’s fourth wave will hit Ireland before the end of the month.

He warned: “Delta is real, there will be a Delta wave,” as he indicated it is almost upon us, adding: “towards the latter part of July, and maybe sooner, we will begin to see numbers increase.”

He said the NPHET warnings of up to 2,000 deaths from this wave was what prompted the Government to cancel the reopening of indoor eating and drinking next week.

The race between the variant and vaccines is now at a crucial stage and Mr Martin said: “The challenge for us is to build up that wall against Covid as quickly as we can."

But the Tanaiste struck a more optimistic note, insisting that there's "no reason to believe" another lockdown was on the way, despite the Delta variant.

He said: "There is no reason to believe that we will be forced to go into a fourth lockdown because of the variant.

"We can still have an outdoor summer, holiday and look forward to schools and colleges going back safely in September when all adults are vaccinated."

“And we may be vaccinating teenagers at that point too," he told the Irish Independent.

Meanwhile, the Government is moving the vaccination programme up a notch after it announced everybody aged 18 and over will be able to register for a jab from Monday.

The Taoiseach stressed how important it is that we get as many people vaccinated as possible to try and beat back the potentially deadly fourth wave.

He said: “Delta is real, there will be a Delta wave across Europe.

“The issue is timeline and the issue is to, how we can delay, but also to vaccinate as many people as we possibly can in the intervening period.”

It was formally announced shortly after his doorstep with reporters that the Government has done a deal with Romania to purchase one million unwanted vaccines.

This will help even further in the race between the variant and the vaccines.

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