Ireland is in its current position of rising Covid-19 cases due to a change in people’s behaviour, according to Dr Mary Favier, adviser on Covid-19 to the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP). Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Dr Favier said she understood that people wanted to meet friends and family. A decision to close 20,000 restaurant businesses before Christmas would be “disastrous, devastating, and a crushing blow” to restaurant owners and their staff, according to the association’s chief executive, Adrian Cummins. This package must be “targeted, impactful, and substantial” to sustain the State’s 180,000 restaurant and hospitality workers and 20,000 businesses, said Mr Cummins. While he accepted that socialisation led to the spread of virus, hospitality businesses had gone out of their way to exercise social distancing, to train staff and to keep customers safe.

Source: The Irish Times December 22, 2020 10:42 UTC