Coronavirus: 'A little bit premature' to open pubs, public health expert says

“This has to be looked at much more carefully over the next three weeks,”Dr Joe Barry said.

Public health expert, Dr Joe Barry has warned that the reopening of pubs is “a little bit premature”.

On the balance of risks, the easing of restrictions should be taken “a little more gently” with high-risk locations like pubs, he told Morning Ireland.

Dr Barry, who is Clinical Professor in Public Health Medicine and Head of the Department of Public Health and Primary Care in Trinity College, Dublin said the issue was that a person could walk into a pub, have a few pints and walk out with Covid, but be asymptomatic.

“It’s a little bit premature to let pubs reopen the way they want to do it.”

“This has to be looked at much more carefully over the next three weeks,” he added.

A pub is a different environment from restaurants, one that was difficult to control, he said. A pub was the ideal place for the spread of the virus given the close proximity of customers. Adding alcohol to the situation meant that people’s judgement could “go a little bit.”

The guidelines on the reopening of pubs from Fáilte Ireland were “strange” with “a lot of woolly language.”

Dr Barry said he could understand publicans intensely lobbying to reopen their businesses, but publicans were not unique in their suffering.

The situation was too serious for people to think they could just out to pubs again. After all the efforts that had been made, there was too much to lose, he warned.