Wet pubs are unlikely to reopen in Ireland until a vaccine is rolled out, it has emerged – sparking fury among publicans.
A senior Government source has warned it will not be safe to reopen them until COVID-19 jabs are deployed nationwide.
Doses of coronavirus vaccines are expected to become available in Ireland in the coming months, but no exact timeline for their roll-out has been published yet.
And health experts don’t envision that the economy can be fully opened until herd immunity is achieved, with one scientist predicting that this could take until next October.
The head of one vintners group last night warned that pub owners would be ‘in serious trouble’ if their closure is extended further, and urged for welfare supports to remain in place for publicans and their staff if they can’t reopen in the months ahead.
And there were predictions from health experts last night that this may not be achieved until the middle of next summer at the earliest, and next October at the latest.
Ireland has opted into six advance-purchase agreements with Moderna, Oxford’s Astro- Zeneca, Janssen, BioNTech-Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur and CureVac for their COVID jabs.
On Friday night, following his state-of-the-nation address announcing the easing of restrictions, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that the ‘evidence is very strong’ to keep wet pubs closed.
Please see for more details https://extra.ie/2020/12/02/news/irish-news/wet-pubs-vaccine
