An Taoiseach Michael Martin has confirmed that indoor hospitality and other activities will be delayed until after 19th July due to the Delta variant of Covid-19.
Organised indoor events, bars and restaurants, group training, exercise, dance will not yet proceed on 5th July.
In a national address this afternoon, the Taoiseach said NPHET delivered a stark warning over the variant. The public health team advised that only vaccinated people should be able to attend indoor activities. Government is now set to “work urgently” to come up with a “practical and workable approach” with affected sectors.
The government will devise an implementation plan by 19 July.
The Taoiseach said that the more-transmissible Delta variant would mean that, if the government proceeded with their previous reopening plans, it would carry a greater risk of increasing the spread of the virus, hospitalisations and deaths.
“We are in a race between the vaccine and the variant,” Mr Martin said.
One plan which is proceeding as normal is that numbers of guests attending weddings will increase to 50 next month as planned. This is due to the special nature of the occasion, the Taoiseach said.
The numbers permitted at organised outdoor events can increase as planned, to a maximum of 200 attendees for the majority of stadia, and to 500 for stadia/venues with capacity greater than 5,000, with appropriate protective measures
The government also announced that there should be no limit on the numbers of people that can visit together once they are all fully protected by vaccination or have had COVID-19 infection in the previous 9 months. Unvaccinated households may have visitors from 1 other unvaccinated household.
Here is your guide to the changes announced today:
