An Irish academic has advised that Christmas festivities should be delayed until the end of January 2021, in an effort to get Covid-19 under control in Ireland.
Dr. Tomás Ryan of Trinity College, Dublin, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Biochemistry & Immunology; Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institutes & Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience.
Dr. Ryan appeared on national radio this week and advised that delaying Christmas until January would allow the Irish people to “celebrate Christmas in a meaningful way”. He went on to say that he felt the work done during the current lock-down will be undermined if Ireland reopens for business at Christmas, and we could be back facing Covid infection rates in the 1000s in January.
“…delay Christmas until the end of January and have a real Christmas and a real party then”
He went on to say that the Government’s aspirations of cases below 100 per day by December 1st, will be in vain if Christmas festivities set the progress back: “…it seems to me it would be much more profitable and pleasant for everyone in Ireland if we got cases down to single figures or to zero, and then kept them there so that we could open up and stay open for as long as possible […] one way of doing this would be to delay Christmas until the end of January and have a real Christmas and a real party then”.
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