On a manic Monday afternoon, the Government made the huge decision to reject a recommendation from the National Public Health Emergency Team.
Upon his return to work from personal leave, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan wrote a stark warning to Government, saying that "proactive and robust measures must now be taken."
He and his colleagues recommended that Ireland moved to Level 5 of the Living with Covid plan, which would see a return to a full lockdown similar to what we saw back in March and April.
Dr Holohan warned that "a graduated approach would, ultimately, result in application of Level 5 measures as mitigation."
Instead of moving to Level 5, Taoiseach Micheal Martin and his Cabinet colleagues decided to place the entire country under Level 3 restrictions, with an enhanced focus on enforcement.
This is the first time the Government has rejected major advice from the group of health experts.
Explaining why such a decision was made, Mr Martin told how we are in a "very different" situation now, and that Government had to think about economic and social impacts.
He told the nation: "As is intended in the procedures we published last month, we have held detailed discussions since receiving NPHET’s recommendation to move straight to a Level 5 lockdown.
"Central to our discussions, has been looking at the wider implications of moving immediately to Level 5 rather than realising the full potential impact of lower level restrictions.
"It’s important to understand that we are in a very different situation to last March.
"The economic, social and non-Covid health impacts of the response must be different now.
"Businesses are beginning to recover and vital public health services are back logged.
"Severe restrictions now, will have a very damaging effect, which they may not be able to recover from."
Meanwhile, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar appeared on Claire Byrne Live last night, saying that NPHET's advice was "out of the blue" and not "thought through."
He added the Government had three reasons for rejecting the proposal.
These were:
- Wider society impacts, such as the closure of businesses and loss of jobs
- That the recommendation was not in line with the 'Living With Covid' plan agreed between NPHET and Government previously, and
- That the NPHET assessment in regards to hospital capacity was not shared by the HSE.
Do you think the Government was right to move to Level 3? Let us know in our comments section
