Donnelly explains colour-coded Covid-19 levels as system 'we'd recognise from weather warnings'

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said the move to a "colour coded" system for Covid-19 awareness and spread is necessary for the next nine months of living with the virus.

The new system, recommended by public health doctors, will see a move away from the "phases of lockdown" the state had previously used, and will be moving to one similar to that of weather warnings.

"NPHET has spent a considerable amount of time moving from a successful piece of work to date, which was responsive in its nature, as we learn more and more about this virus," he said.

"The colour-coded system is one we'd all recognise from weather warnings.

"A yellow level, is where we would be at for the most of the country, the orange level would be some version of what Laois, Kildare and Offaly have in place right now, and the red level, which we've all been accustomed to and what Auckland is currently dealing with right now.

"Then blue; Blue is the colour of vaccines in the medical world, the idea of blue is, we wouldn't be fully clear of this until we have a vaccine and until we can get back to our lives."

The minister added that there had been "genuine confusion" when Ireland launched it's so-called travel "green list", and Cabinet decided that blue would be the colour for the most positive warning.

"The idea is a colour coded system so we can see how we're doing, how our local areas are doing and plan ahead a bit more."

The government says it is essential to plan ahead for life living with coronavirus without a vaccine, which NPHET says could be up to two years, and the colour-codes will be the foundation of that plan.

"The phases were an idea where we moved through a time period, when the original roadmap came in there was a timeline attached to it, every six weeks we'd move out," Mr Donnelly told RTÉ.

"This is different, no matter what day of the week, or what week are we at, we can say: Are we at status yellow? Or have things got to a point we need to move to organise across the country or different regions?"

Laois, Offaly and Kildare have been reverted back to county-wide travel restrictions after several Covid outbreaks in meatpacking plants and Direct Provision centres, and the Health Minister says it is possible it could happen again in other counties.

"I believe the measures the public health doctors recommended for Kildare, Laois and Offaly are nuanced," he said.

"It's entirely possible (it could happen again), we've seen just how quickly the virus can spread and we need to react quickly.

"In those counties, if we hadn't reacted as quickly, it would've seeped into the community and spread around the country and we'd be back to the start again and having to reimpose really strict measures across the country."

Minister Donnelly will not be present at tomorrow's Oireachtas Covid Committee which will hear from representatives from meatpacking plants and the Health and Safety Authority (HSA).

His absence has been described as "unacceptable and really disappointing" by Sinn Féin's Matt Carthy.

"Ministers and officials have been very evasive and dismissive about any concerns raised with regards to meat factories so we need the minister to come before the committee and answer questions," he said.