THE PUBLIC will be back enjoying pints in pub gardens across Ireland by June, according to a leading Irish doctor.
Though the country still faces a difficult winter with Spring providing partial respite, Professor Luke O’Neill believes that things will look considerably brighter by the summer.
Speaking to the Irish Times, Professor O’Neill defended Ireland’s handling of the pandemic and dismissed some of the comparisons made with countries like New Zealand and South Korea where Covid-19 has been all but eradicated.
In the case of South Korea, he noted that they were able to deal with it so effectively off the back of their experience with Sars and Mers.
“Ireland hasn’t been doing too badly in controlling the disease. If nobody left their house for three weeks, the virus would go away but that’s impossible to do. I always knew that we would beat this virus but I didn’t know when,” he said.
Though he acknowledged the public still faced a long wait before restrictions would be lifted, once Ireland’s most vulnerable were vaccinated the situation could change relatively quickly.
“Once the top four priority groups in Ireland are vaccinated, the death rate will fall by 95 per cent, and the rate of illness and growth rate of the virus will go down too,” he said.
GettyHe also called for calm when it came to contemplating new strains of the virus.
“The best labs in the world are looking at the new strains; it [only] takes six weeks for companies like Moderna to make vaccines to beat new strains,” he said.
Though the first wave of vaccinations will likely result in a massive drop-off in serious cases of the coronavirus, Professor O’Neill acknowledged that Ireland would likely “stay cautious” in the months that followed.
“I would like to see schools reopen after March 5th,” he said.
“I think we will be back in beer gardens with friends in June and [indoor] pubs towards the autumn but we’ll have one more summer holidaying in Ireland,” he said.
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