Further easing of coronavirus restrictions to be discussed today
Further easing of restrictions will be discussed at today's meeting of the National Public Health Emergency Team.
Given the decline in the number of people contracting the disease in the community and the level of public compliance with health measures, the plan for the easing of restrictions was accelerated recently.
New plans for the reopening of restaurants and pubs have been announced.
Original guidance from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre said that 90 minutes slots should be allowed for customers, but after pressure from the bar industry, the advice has been updated to 105 minutes.
The two-metre rule could be reduced to one in certain circumstances.
Pre-booking of places in pubs will be encouraged as much as possible.
Pubs will also have to collect the contact information of one member of each party when they reopen on June 29th.
Tara Kerry, from Failte Ireland says there will also be 15 minutes between each booking:
"It is, for all intents and purposes, two hours, because its 105 minutes for somebody sitting at a table, but importantly, and again to instil confidence in the consumers, there’s a 15-minute turnaround, so that there’s an avoidance there of people clashing or having an overlap."
It is also anticipated that the reopening of hairdressers and barbers could be moved to the end of this month.
Professor Sam McConkey, an infectious disease expert at the Royal College of Surgeons, says hairdressers and barbers should be able to open earlier than planned:
"I think hairdressers and barbers is one possible way forward.
I'm sure there’s a lot of people pent up that need their hair done.
"That’s an important priority for a lot of folk, I’m sure there’ll be queues and early mornings and late nights and bookings and everything.
"I think that could be done safely - that’s one of the menu of options of how we could relax our restrictions a bit further."
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