Irish Examiner view: Carrots with caveats approach to lifting Covid restrictions

If the rapid uptake of vaccines continues, Nphet would be optimistic that some of the remaining restrictions could be lifted sooner than expected

Chief medical officer Tony Holohan has raised hopes of lifting restrictions as new data showed the young are now hardest hit by Covid. Picture: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie

One of the patterns that has emerged in the course of the pandemic is that, in the days before a bank holiday weekend various, official voices point to some as yet unreachable sunny upland. 

A regular carrot-and-stick policy, it is designed to encourage responsibility by outlining what might be achieved, or what is at risk, if we drop our defences.