Nine More Weeks Of ‘Severe’ Lockdown for Ireland

NINE more weeks of ‘severe’ lockdown for Ireland, but the Taoiseach insists it will be ‘worth it.’

The Taoiseach of Ireland, Micheál Martin, confirmed in an interview with The Irish Mirror on Thursday night, February 18 that the country is to remain at the highest level of restrictions for nine more weeks, stating that these “severe” measures would stay in place until at least the beginning of April.

The Taoiseach dashed the hopes of many that a relaxing of measures would be announced in the next couple of weeks, claiming that this would most likely only mean a gradual reopening of schools and perhaps some return of construction work. If the current restrictions continue as planned, it will mean that Ireland will have spent five months in level 5 lockdown, which has seen all bars, restaurants and non-essential retail close, a ban on social gatherings and a five kilometre radius for exercise enforced.

“It’s been a long lockdown already and I would say to people it’s worth it, because we know the vaccines are coming out and we already see that vaccines are improving the situations in our hospitals and nursing homes, because the disease is coming down in both locations which is indicative of the vaccination programme,” Mr Martin said.

The Taoiseach previously said that the Covid vaccine was “the light at the end of the tunnel, and the vaccines will enable us to have a better quality of life.”

“The target date is that by September we’ll have the majority of the population vaccinated,” he said.

“We’re vaccinating as soon as we get the vaccines into the country and we can do no more than that.”

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