People won't return to wet pubs and indoor restaurants 'if anxiety over new Covid cases stays high'

As case numbers reported in the news goes up and down, people's levels of caution goes up or down too, behavioural research shows

Professor Peter Lunn of the ESRI said people will feel either much more comfortable or anxious about going to eat or drink indoors depending on the daily new case numbers. Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

Many Irish people will likely not automatically go back into wet pubs and indoor restaurants even when the businesses reopen this summer if the Covid case numbers reported daily remain at elevated levels, an ESRI professor who conducts behavioural research on the pandemic for the Government has predicted. 

Peter Lunn of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) said there will be a strong link between reducing numbers to around 100 new cases a day from the current number of around 450 with the footfall that wet pubs and indoor restaurants will secure when they reopen this summer.