Ireland is to reintroduce Covid-19 restrictions this week, including a return to working from home wherever possible and a midnight curfew for pubs and clubs, in an effort to curb a fourth wave of the virus that has pushed infections to their highest level in nearly a year.
It is one of three European countries that will implement measures in the coming days. Slovakia and the Czech Republic are also set to introduce new restrictions after both countries on Wednesday recorded their highest daily infection figures since the start of the pandemic.
Taoiseach Micheål Martin, who said the grim picture in Ireland and across Europe was of “deep concern”, also announced a ramp-up of booster vaccines to all over-50s and vulnerable people.
Without Ireland’s vaccination success — 89 percent of over-12s are now double jabbed — “there is no doubt that we would now be in a full-scale lockdown”, he said in an address to the nation on Tuesday evening.
In the Czech Republic, where just 58 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, prime minister Andrej Babis said that from next Monday, people who had not been vaccinated or recovered from Covid-19 would be banned from attending public events.
Meanwhile, in Slovakia, where hospitals in the east of the country are stretched to their limits, the government will decide on Thursday the extent of the restrictions they will implement. Proposals include banning the unvaccinated from non-essential shops, sports facilities and public mass gatherings.
The new Irish restrictions, which take effect on Friday, mark a reversal of a full reopening in the hospitality sector that had been under way for less than a month.