Too early for pubs?
A Leeside health expert has welcomed the Government’s new six month ‘Living with Covid’ plan, but feels it may still be too early to open the wet pubs.
Speaking to the Cork Independent, Professor of Public Health at UCC, Ivan Perry, said that the new plan “makes sense”, and that treating the pandemic regionally is the best way forward.
Prof Perry said: “We're moving from treating the country as a single outbreak. As is the nature of a pandemic, you get different outbreaks in different parts of the country.
“A regional approach means that wherever we can open up, we should open up. We can then focus our resources on other parts of the country where incidences are high.”
However, Prof Perry, who is also the Head of the Department of Epidemiology & Public Health at UCC, feels that the timing could be better to reopen wet pubs.
“I think it's possibly too early given that numbers are rising. Kids are just back in school. Universities will soon be getting sizeable numbers of students back on campus. You have to ask, is now the time that the pubs should open? Although, I have huge sympathy of course for the difficulties they're facing,” said the professor.
On Tuesday morning the Government announced the full ‘Living with Covid’ plan.
The new plan involves a system of levels from 1-5 with varying levels of restrictions depending on how prevalent the virus is in a given county.
The entire country is currently on level two. However Dublin, which has the highest incidence of infection in the country, has a number of extra restrictions in place.
Prof Perry said that, due to “worrying numbers”, he believes Dublin will be moved up to level three before the week is out.
Cork is currently the second lowest county in terms of incidence of infection per 100,000 population, something Prof Perry attributes to the city’s size and excellent public health department.
“Cork can be described as a city on a human scale, where it is maybe easier to get certain things done, and we have an outstanding public health medicine department led by Dr Anne Sheehan, and I think credit has to go there as well,” he said.
He continued: “Dublin is on a scale beyond Cork in terms of population density, and this is a pattern you see worldwide, although you do get outbreaks in rural areas, it's usually heavily concentrated in urban areas.”
Prof Perry went on to emphasise that the “core rules haven’t changed” and that hand washing, cough etiquette and social responsibility should still be everyone’s priority as we approach winter.
Cork City North West Cllr Damien Boylan heaped praise on the people of Cork for “taking this seriously”.
The councillor said: “You know what, let's not fool each other, there's no two ways about it. Cork people have been outstanding throughout all of this. There's been no madness. Well, a bit of madness maybe, but not anywhere near the levels we've seen in Dublin.”