'We're not there yet': Taoiseach says restrictions won't be lifted in coming days

The Taoiseach has said we are "not there yet" regarding the lifting of current restrictions to stop the spread of coronavirus.

The Taoiseach says that the rate of deaths and new cases of Covid-19 are not low enough to loosen restrictions.

Speaking today, Leo Varadkar said although "things may change by Friday", he doesn't believe Ireland is headed for a reopening, and added the government hopes to share their plan for lifting restrictions in the next few days.

The Irish public will be made aware "certainly over the weekend", how the state will emerge from COVID19 lockdown, according to Mr Varadkar, amid speculation about the possible reopening of restaurants and large stores such as hardware or garden centres.

"We hope to be able to share the exit plan with the Irish public in the next couple of days, certainly over the weekend," he said.

"It will be a stepwise plan on how we can reopen the country and reopen our society, based on different intervals.

"We'll also get new advice from the Chief Medical Officer on Friday about when we should start that process for reopening the economy and society.

"We have to look at things like the number of ICU patients, the number of new cases and deaths, and I don't think I'd be talking out of school saying those numbers just aren't good enough, as things stand, we're not there yet.

"There are over 100 patients in ICU with Covid, we have seen the lowest increase in new cases, but it's still not low enough.

"I know people are enormously frustrated, when these restrictions were put in place, people understood and we even had people volunteering to shut their businesses and I'm immensely grateful to the Irish business community for taking this on the way they did.

"I appreciate that it's gone on for such a long time, other countries are reopening and people are wondering why we aren't either.

They are a few weeks ahead of us in the history of the pandemic, we're 3/4 weeks behind places like Italy, and the government can only be comfortable to reopen when we are happy, and the medical data and doctors' advice says it's safe.

"The last thing we want to do is open the country too quickly and have to go back in again, we've seen that in Japan and some evidence in Germany.

"This is not a perfect science, there is no rule book for this, but I'd rather be in position to do it right the first time.

"Any frustration will be ten times worse if we have to go back in again."

Mr Varadkar was quick to criticise media reports about reopening as speculation, and would not be drawn on what the public should expect.

"You are going to see a lot of speculation in papers and online, but I'm not going to add to that, because it is just speculation. I want people to know when you hear it from me, that's what is going to happen," he added.

He also dismissed theories that Ireland was not able to reopen due to lack of testing.

"On a per head basis, we're sixth in the EU, testing more per head than many others," he said.

"We're not reopening because of the high number of people in ICU, the number of deaths reported is still very high and we have a lot of news cases, we have to take a number of factors into account."