Briefing on the government's response to COVID-19 - Thursday 16 July 2020

Delivered by Elizabeth Canavan, Assistant Secretary General, Department of the Taoiseach

Good morning everyone.

Many of you will have heard the news this morning on the government’s decision to pause the move to Phase 4 of our Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business, which was due to happen on Monday.

For many individuals, families and businesses it is a huge disappointment. For that very reason, it was a very difficult decision to make.

Understandably people are asking what’s happened. Why now?

So I want to recap on some of that for you:

• the first thing to say is that all of you have done the heaviest lifting in terms of our suppression of this disease so far. It is the everyday things in each individual’s personal behaviour that makes a difference to the spread of this disease. This is more important than any other measure that we can take
• we are still in a good place with the disease but the trend in infections has crept up, in a small way and slowly, but that small increase is persisting. The way we are monitoring the disease allows us to see these small changes and assess them every day. That is a good thing. The rate of testing we are doing is allowing us to have a sound basis for assessing the overall level of infection. We weren’t in that position at the start of all of this
• however, the problem is the nature of this disease. We know more than we knew at the beginning and there are two things we have to remember:

a. One is that it is highly infectious. It spreads fast. That’s what the “R” number is all about. An “R” of 1 or lower means every person who has it infects one person or less. So the disease begins to die off. An “R” of 1.8 means nearly 2 people will get it from every 1 person who has it and in that scenario, the disease takes hold again.

b. The second thing is how silent this is – many, many people are asymptomatic – they don’t feel unwell, they don’t look unwell but it doesn’t make them any less infectious. In a way, that means we have to treat everyone as if they may have it – that means doing all of the simple things we keep repeating.

• you may be wondering why did this happen – did we move too soon. Of course, the reality is that more and more people are moving around and mixing than they were weeks ago. That creates “better” conditions for the disease. All along, the government has been assessing a balance of risks of public health, social impacts of restrictions and economic impacts and will continue to do that. The Roadmap and the decision-making process was designed to be agile so that we can respond in real time to changes in the situation. That is what the government have done now. Pause now and avoid risking any reversal – the impact of that on society and business would be far greater.

So for now, the current public health measures will remain in place until 10 August.

We are advising you to limit the number of visitors to your home to a maximum of 10, from no more than 4 households.

The current restrictions of 50 people at organised indoor gatherings and 200 people at organised outdoor gatherings are being extended until 10 August.

You should continue to avoid crowded areas and exercise your personal judgement when deciding to enter a venue or participate in an activity.

Remember, if it looks and feels unsafe, then it probably is unsafe.

The government is now planning to make the wearing of face coverings in shops and shopping centres mandatory.

Pausing the move to Phase 4 also means that pubs, bars and nightclubs will not be permitted to open on Monday. We understand how disappointing that is for business owners, for employees and the public.

Pubs and bars that are operating as restaurants can remain open but they must strictly adhere to the guidance and regulations in place. People are asking why this distinction.

So, to be clear, when the government decided to allow restaurants to open, it was based on public health advice that restaurants represent a “controlled” environment.

We all know the difference between our behaviour and expectations when we go to a restaurant as opposed to a pub. Nevertheless, to support the sector and acknowledging the very strong food business for many publicans as part of their business model, Government agreed that pubs acting as restaurants could go ahead. The National Public Health Emergency Team have doubled down on their ask of pubs that are open to behave as restaurants and the guidance on what that means is clear.

As has been the case all along, we will only continue to be successful in suppressing this virus through our collective efforts, through keeping each other safe.

While this deferral of Phase 4 will be disappointing for many, we should not be disheartened. We are doing this to ensure that we don’t go backwards and undo all of the work, and the considerable sacrifices, you have already made.

And also to continue our progress towards the reopening of schools and the careful resumption of health services.

Again, the best contribution we can make as individuals to the suppression of the virus and to help us get back on track remains:

• wash your hands regularly and thoroughly – especially after you have been out and about or in and out of other peoples’ homes or businesses
• continue to observe good cough and sneeze etiquette
• maintain social distancing – keeping two metres apart from people when possible and avoid crowds
• continue to try to keep your social interactions to a minimum to limit the amount of contacts that you have
• face coverings are now required on public transport and will be required in shops and shopping centres, and are recommended in all indoor settings where social distancing is difficult. It is encouraging to see that more people are wearing facemasks as part of our daily routine and we want that to continue and to grow

The final thing I want to say on this is around getting tested.

Public Health doctors are reporting an increase in the number of clusters around the country in recent days. They are also reporting an increasing proportion of people identified as close contacts of positive cases who, when offered a test, are not coming forward to be tested. Testing is the foundation stone of everything we do in relation to this disease, if we don’t know how many people have it, if we don’t know where the disease is, we can’t stop it spreading.

So please, if you are asked to get a test, please do so.

The COVID Tracker app will play an important part in helping everyone to stay safe and protect each other and support our contact tracing and testing operations.

A reminder that the app will support digital and anonymous contact tracing of close contacts of confirmed cases, allow users to record if they experience symptoms and provide daily information about COVID-19.

1.3 million people downloaded the app within 8 days of launch. This is by far the most significant uptake of any non-mandatory contact tracing app all over the world. We would like to thank everyone who has downloaded it.

At 1.3 million users, we have now reached 35% of the adult population aged 16 and older in Ireland and continue to grow. The response has been fantastic. We can confirm that the contact tracing team have started to see the benefit of the app in their work and have already spoken to a number of people that have requested a call back through the app having received a close contact alert.

Downloading and installing the app takes two minutes, and is a simple and effective way that you can help the fight against the virus by protecting yourself, your family, your friends, and many people you don’t know.

On Monday this week regulations providing that members of the public shall not, without reasonable excuse, travel by public transport without wearing a face covering came into effect. Therefore, anyone using public transport who can wear a face covering must do so. These regulations were introduced in order protect the safety of transport staff and passengers.

There are cases in which a face covering cannot be worn with a reasonable excuse, these include where a person:

• cannot put one on, wear or remove a face covering because of any physical or mental illness, impairment or disability or without severe distress
• a person needs to communicate with another person who has difficulties communicating
• where a person removes the face covering to provide emergency assistance or to provide care or assistance to a vulnerable person
• where a person removes the face covering to take medication

The Regulations also do not apply to children under the age of 13.

To date the people of Ireland have shown great compliance with public health regulations and a profound commitment to protecting themselves and the people around them. The mandatory wearing of facemasks on public transport is one more element in our fight against the spread of the virus.

Over 67,400 employers are now registered with Revenue for the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme.

An estimated 405,000 employees are currently being supported by the scheme having received a subsidy in their most recent pay period.

Today (16 July), Revenue has generated further payments to employers under the scheme of €24.4 million.

These payments will be in the bank accounts of the majority of the respective employers tomorrow (17 July).

The cumulative value of payments made to employers under the scheme is €2 billion (€2,062 million).

This week, approximately 345,600 people who were unemployed last week received their weekly payment under the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment Scheme.

This is a reduction of approximately 67,300 on the number of people paid last week.

This is the largest week on week decrease in the number of people receiving the payment to date and is an overall decrease of 242,400 or 42% on the peak figure of 598,000 people who were receiving the payment on 5 May.

In total, approximately €2.8 billion has been paid up to and including 14 July.

Last week, approximately 36,000 people in receipt of the payment closed their claim as they had returned to work.

Approximately 19,800 of these received their last unemployment payment this week because they were unemployed in the payment period.

Since the start of the reopening, as I said, a total figure of 242,400 people have come off the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and of those, 226,000 people have closed their claim as they have returned to work.

If you are returning to work today, you should close your claim as you return to work. If you are starting work later in the week, you should close your claim on the day you return to employment.

To close your unemployment claim, click here.

As businesses continue to restore their operations, a range of measures remain in place to support their recovery.

Supports available include the €250 million Restart Grant which provides direct grant aid of a minimum of €2,000 to a maximum of €10,000 to micro and small businesses, to help them with the costs associated with reopening and reemploying workers.

Applications for this grant can be made through the Local Authorities and to date 40,506 applications have been received with 26,870 approved, which saw a total of €109.8 million in payments made to small businesses.

I’ve also previously mentioned the Trading Online Voucher Scheme continues to be hugely popular and to date a total of 7,130 applications have been made to the Local Enterprise Offices for the Scheme with 4,303 approved to a value of €10.2 million.

The Community Call Fora, run by the local authorities, are still operating.

Last week, they received approximately 600 calls and made approximately 360 follow-up calls to people who have contacted them.

That’s 52,800 calls and over 20,600 follow-up calls since 31 March.

Helplines operate from 9am to 5pm seven days a week and if you need help, you can find your local helpline number here.

Last week a revised cultural programme was approved for Galway 2020, Ireland’s European Capital of Culture, ensuring that projects from the original winning bid by Galway can take place. The programme has been reimagined in order to take account of changed circumstances due to COVID-19 and will now involve a combination of online delivery and physical performance in compliance with restrictions.

The approval to proceed will be a great relief to all of those involved in Galway 2020 who have been working on it for many years. The movement of many projects online will also mean that audiences globally as well as nationally can experience the diverse and innovative projects being presented up to March 2021.

In the past week there has been further widening of the eligibility for the Item was unpublished or removed to include children with complex needs who are entering a mainstream primary school class in September.

Since the announcement of the programme on 12 June and the subsequent decision by Government last week on the inclusion of post-primary children with Down’s syndrome, there was further engagement on the inclusion of children with complex needs.

The Summer Provision will be crucial in helping these children to prepare for a return to education, particularly after the health restrictions that have been in place over recent months. As we continue to prepare for the re-opening of schools, it is important to support families to ensure no children with complex needs regress in terms of their education and social interactions.

We were also pleased to learn last Friday that there has been a positive rate of sign up since childcare services were allowed to reopen on 29 June, with 85% of providers surveyed by the Department of Children indicating that they planned on reopening and just 2% indicating they would not be reopening.

The most recent available data shows that 68 services have notified their closure to Tusla this year. That compares to 92 services announcing closure by this time last year, so there is a normal turn over at this time. 17 new providers have notified their intent to open a new service.

Eight organisations representing the sector met with the Minister last week and all organisations indicated a very high level of reopening. They did express concern that parental demand and level of child attendance had reduced but they hoped to see this return to higher levels by September.

This year saw unprecedented difficulties in childcare and it is hoped that these positive trends will continue and that our childcare providers can continue to overcome the immense challenges presented by COVID-19.

Last week a temporary suspension of the Irish Short Stay Visa Waiver Programme (SSVWP) was announced as part of COVID-19 measures to restrict travel and protect public health.

The Programme had allowed people visiting the United Kingdom on short stay visas to travel to Ireland. Under the agreement, the visa holders had to leave Ireland before their permission to stay in the UK ended. The suspension of the Programme is being implemented because of a divergence in approach between Ireland and the UK in travel measures to combat the pandemic.

Nationals of the affected countries will no longer be in a position to use their UK short stay visa for a visit to Ireland, but may apply separately for an Irish visa, which under current circumstances would only be accepted if it was a critical case.

This is a temporary measure, which does not affect the Common Travel Area rights of British and Irish citizens or the operation of the CTA.

Last week one of the world’s first virtual citizenship ceremonies was held in Ireland. The pilot event was attended by 21 applicants who had opted not to attend the ceremonies that took place on 2 and 3 March in Killarney due to COVID-19 concerns.

The Minister for Justice and Equality attended the ceremony and gave the attendees a warm welcome as Ireland’s newest citizens.

In light of the challenges posed by COVID-19, significant work has been done to identify a viable, alternative method of delivery for citizenship ceremonies. It was important that any alternative would protect the safety and wellbeing of candidates and staff, while ensuring the event reflects the dignity and solemnity appropriate to such a milestone event in our new citizens’ lives. The pilot will be reviewed and if deemed successful will be the way applicants are conferred with citizenship over the coming months.

From the evening of Friday, July 3rd to Sunday July 12th, An Garda Síochána has conducted thousands of checks on licensed premises throughout the country.

The vast majority of licensed premises operating have been found to be in compliance with regulations and licensing laws.

During this time, there were 37 individual cases where Gardaí have found potential breaches of the health regulations or licensing laws even after providing the premises with the opportunity to rectify the situation.

In all of these cases, Gardaí found customers consuming alcohol, but no evidence of food also being consumed and no evidence of receipts to show that food had been sold.

Files will now be prepared for the DPP in each of these cases.

There has been considerable discussion in relation to travel over recent days and weeks.

The government has said it will publish a green list on Monday. Work is also ongoing about how to strengthen understanding and compliance at points of entry regarding the current public health advice.

This is another really difficult area where Government are trying to balance all of the risks – public health, social and economic impacts. It is a challenging question – particularly in a highly volatile situation as regards the disease across the world.

We understand people’s concerns on both sides. And there are cases related to travel. Since the beginning of June, travel related cases in Ireland are associated with travel from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, France, Germany, India, Iraq, Malaysia, Pakistan, Portugal, Qatar, Sudan, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. There will be a further update from the Acting CMO at this evening’s briefing post NPHET.

However, it is also really important to remember that the majority of the cases we are seeing where there are clusters emerging relate to community transmission where the basic behaviours around limiting our contacts and keeping our distance are where we will have the biggest impact on stopping the spread of the disease.

For now, the government’s advice is still no non-essential travel and there will be further updates on the position early next week.

So once again we approach a weekend and I want to reiterate my usual message – enjoy your weekend, support local businesses, visit your families and friends, but do so in a cautious and responsible manner. Don’t meet up with too many people, don’t put yourselves in crowded situations and try not take any risks. Be safe.

Thank you.