THE World Health Organisation is “nervous” about vaccine status being used to allow people access to venues.
After NPHET predicted high case numbers over the summer, the Government have postponed indoor dining until July 19 to allow time to work out how to manage the vaccine bonus situation.
3
3
3
The re-opening of indoor dining had been due to return on July 5 whilst hotels have been able to serve guests indoors since June 2.
Dr David Nabarro, WHO’s Special Envoy on Covid-19 spoke on Newstalk earlier this morning where he warned against “unequal vaccine access”.
‘UNEQUAL VACCINE ACCESS’
He said: “Whilst I understand people calling for the use of vaccine status to be something that determines whether or not people can get into a venue or country, I myself, in the current circumstances, am not so keen on that.
“Access to vaccines is so unequal in our world, and I don’t want anything to happen that increases the inequalities.
“If you use vaccine status as a requirement for entry to something, you’re also blocking out an awful lot of people from having any chance of participating.”
Paul Murphy, People before Profit TD for Dublin South West, agreed with the Government decision to delay the reopening of indoor dining.
He said: “If we make the decision to reopen now, there is a significant danger that we’re making the same mistake that was made at the end of November which was absolutely disastrous, I mean a thousand people died in January and then again in February.”
Ireland will become an outlier in Europe from July 2 as the ban on indoor dining in bars and restaurants continues, Drinks Ireland have said.
The association said Greece is the only country in Europe, excluding Ireland.
