The government is set to publish its updated Covid roadmap on August 31.
During today's NPHET briefing, a number of important topics were discussed including the future of outdoor events and festivals like Electric Picnic, conditions for pregnant women, the Delta peak, mask-wearing, vaccination, live events and more.
However, with a new roadmap out of lockdown set to be published soon, the mood of the press conference was impacted by the recent comments made by Stephen Donnelly.
The latest from the Minister for Health
On Tuesday morning, Stephen Donnelly said all remaining restrictions will be lifted before Christmas - including the reopening of nightclubs.
Minister Donnelly said he believed basic public health measures such as mask-wearing would remain in place in high-risk settings for some time and people would be encouraged to continue with cough and hand hygiene.
When asked if he believes all remaining restrictions in place would be lifted before Christmas - including the reopening of nightclubs and the scrapping of a cap on the number of people attending live entertainment events - Minister Donnelly said: “Yes, I do.
“Obviously specific dates are something we will be looking to NPHET for and we’ll be discussing at Cabinet. But certainly yes.
“The view would be that we would be open this calendar year.
“Yes [the] plan is to proceed with the next phase and it’ll be next Tuesday or Wednesday [when the announcement is made].”
Reopening everything before the end of 2021
Dr Tony Holohan was optimistic that the remaining restrictions in Ireland will be gone before Christmas but warned that the vaccination programme will be the key factor.
Speaking this afternoon at the Department of Health, the CMO said he hoped remaining restrictions could be gone “much sooner” than Christmas.
He said: “It’s hard to be certain about in advance but obviously our hope and ambition is that we might get there much sooner than that."
Holohan added: “Obviously it’s going to depend on us getting as far as we reasonably can in terms of our vaccine but the nature of vaccination and the time it takes for an individual to receive both doses and then to become vaccinated it will be well into September by the time we complete the vaccination programme."
The CMO also noted that the uptake in vaccination will be key in determining whether “unsafe” activities can return and that Ireland may be in that place in “four to six weeks”.
In terms of Ireland's vaccine programme, the CEO of the HSE Paul Reid has said: "The gap between adults partially and fully vaccinated continues to close. Almost 86% of adults are fully vaccinated and 91% partially. Now over 144,000 12-15-year-olds registered and 88,000 administered."
However, during the same press conference, the CMO also cast some don't on this optimism when he was asked his view on Stephen Donnelly's recent comments that all sectors "would be open this calendar year."
When asked to respond to the Health Minister's remarks, Holohan said: "We have no basis to say anything other than we expect incidences to grow. It's simply not right for us to express such optimism at present."
The CMO noted that health authorities will have a better idea of where the country stands in 4-6 weeks before noting that: "We need to keep going with vaccination.
"Let me clarify, now is not the time to say that we've gotten to where we want to get to, but we have reason to believe that we'll get to the levels of vaccination that we want to get to."
Case numbers and the 14-day incidence rate
Dr Tony Holohan warned of an “extremely high incidence” of the disease in Ireland currently.
He said in a statement.“On average, we have reported 1,814 confirmed cases of Covid-19 per day for the last 5 days. Our 14-day incidence is now 526 per 100,000 population. This is an extremely high incidence of disease circulating in our communities."
Professor Philip Nolan also warned that that Ireland is approaching the peak of the wave of Delta infections but that it has not peaked yet.
“We have been living with Covid-19 restrictions for a significant period of time – it is now 542 days since we reported the first case of Covid-19 in Ireland. It is understandable that many of us are tired of the public health measures that we continue to advise.
"Unfortunately, this disease continues to evolve and the very best way we can protect ourselves and each other is to continue to do our very best to follow the public health advice," he said.
The Electric Picnic fiasco and what the Government has said
The Managing Director of Festival Republic, which runs Electric Picnic, has called on Laois County Council to immediately reverse its decision not to grant the event a licence.
The new appeals come after Dr Tony Holohan signalled that NPHET would not have a “major concern” if Electric Picnic went ahead, provided only fully vaccinated people were allowed to attend.
Speaking at the NPHET briefing, Dr Holohan said he wouldn’t have a major concern with outdoor events going ahead for those who are fully vaccinated.
When asked whether outdoor events such as Electric Picnic could be permitted for those who are fully vaccinated, Dr Holohan said “we wouldn’t have a major concern to express in public health terms about that if that could be achieved.”
He adds: “We wouldn't have a concern from a public health point of view to express about an event that happened that was confined to vaccinated people.
In a statement that was released this evening, Melvin Benn of Festival Republic has said: "It’s hard for me to believe what I just read but I want to.
"We are asking Laois County Council to immediately reverse the decision it took to refuse the licence and grant it immediately in line with the CMO’s conditions: that everyone attending should be vaccinated, exactly as we said a month ago.
"What a springboard to the future this could be. Change the decision Laois County Council and let’s have the Picnic. Tell us tomorrow and we are on our way."
After deciding not to give Electric Picnic a licence, Laois County Council said: “Laois County Council has today made the decision to refuse a licence to hold the 2021 Electric Picnic event at Stradbally, Co Laois.
"The decision has been made following the most up to date public health advice made available to the Council from the HSE.
“Furthermore, it is noted that under current government measures for the management of Covid-19, events of this nature are restricted to an attendance of 500 people only.”
The festival had originally been scheduled to take place in late September.
Following today's revelation, the government released the following statement: "Taoiseach Micheál Martin met with the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media Catherine Martin today to discuss the coming roadmap for the reopening of society, including the Live Entertainment and Arts sector.
"It was agreed that a meeting with industry stakeholders will take place next Monday, attended by both the Taoiseach and Tánaiste.
"This will follow the latest NPHET advice and the deliberations of a COVID sub-committee this Friday, which Minister Martin will attend.
What comes next?
Ireland’s winter plan and last roadmap out of lockdown will be published on Tuesday week, August 31st.
This will follow a meeting of the medical experts of NPHET next Wednesday morning, followed by another Cabinet subcommittee on Covid next Friday, August 27th.
It is understood that officials will then work through a plan ahead of the big Tuesday announcement.
