13:33Ireland is to keep its pubs shut – Europe’s longest such lockdown – to try to curb infection rates. Health officials have recommended that “wet” pubs that do not serve food should not open on 31 August, as previously planned. Pubs that serve food reopened in late June. Ronan Glynn, Ireland’s acting chief medical officer, said on Thursday that wet pubs – about half of Ireland’s 7,000 pubs – should stay shut amid a rising infection rate of 33 per 100,000 people. In the context of schools opening and the number of cases in hospital beginning to rise, it’s not the time to open pubs.

Source: The Guardian August 27, 2020 23:36 UTC