THE DATE for all remaining pubs in Ireland to reopen is set to be delayed.
Since the start of July, pubs able to offer customers a substantial meal of over €9 were allowed to open, which left around 50% of sites around the country closed.
This coming Monday (July 20), all pubs are set to swing open their doors, but it now appears the date is going to be pushed back.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) meet this morning to further discuss the government's reopening plan.
Speaking at yesterday's evening Covid-19 briefing, acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said it was "too early" to say that the final phase would go ahead as planned.
Glynn said that the five-day average of cases in now 20, higher than it has ever been in recent weeks, and that avoiding another viral spike is the government's top priority.
"In the first instance we're looking everyday at the increasing cases. We're looking at the profile of those cases, can we can we say where they're coming from? We're looking at the reproductive number and as we said last week, that appears to have gone at least to one if not above one," he said.
"Thankfully our hospitals and critical care units are very stable and at very low levels. As I said, we're monitoring very closely we'll continue to do so through this week."
Glynn added that the NPHET was "concerned" about the increase in cases and that a decision on officially moving into Phase Four of the government's reopening plan won't be made quickly.
Under the final phase of reopening planned for 20 July, pubs that don’t serve food can reopen and gatherings of 100 people indoors and 500 outdoors will be permissible.
Ahead of that date, some pubs have complained that they are not being given enough information about what is expected of them.
