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The government is publishing its new Covid plan for the country today. Sam Boal

National 'Living with Covid' plan to be announced this morning, but Dublin pubs reopening to be paused again

It’s expected a press conference outlining the measures will take place after ministers meet at 8am.

CABINET WILL MEET this morning to sign off on Ireland’s new ‘Living with Covid’ plan. 

Taoiseach Micheál Martin and his ministers are due to meet at 8am. It’s expected the full details of the plan – many of which have been well-flagged – will be officially announced at a press conference before midday. 

In tandem with the national plan, more restrictive measures are also set to be announced for Dublin specifically following an increase in cases in the county. 

It emerged late last night that so-called ‘wet pubs’ in the capital are to be told to remain closed next week, as pubs in the rest of the country open their doors. 

The leaders of the Government parties agreed the move last night, with Cabinet expected to sign off on the measure this morning. 

In the rest of the country, pubs that do not serve food are set to be allowed re-open as planned on 21 September under the schedule announced by government last week. 

The leaders of the three government parties also discussed a recommendaton from NPHET to limit travel in and out of Dublin.

Cabinet will discuss that issue today, with a final decision expected to be announced at this morning’s press conference, sources said. 

The national plan 

Ministers and officials have been working on the various elements of the new national plan over the last number of weeks. 

It will include a colour-coded, five-level system to indicate what public health measures are in place in different areas of the country at any given time and will replace the original roadmap plan set out by then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on 1 May. 

Alongside the announcement of the national plan, it has been signalled in recent days that restrictive new measures for Dublin are also expected to be announced today.

Of 2,230 coronavirus cases reported in the two weeks up to last Saturday, more than half are located in Dublin. Ireland’s 14-day incidence rate of Covid-19 is currently 46.8, while Dublin’s rate is almost double that at 89.1 per 100,000. 

Speaking yesterday, before the decision about the ‘wet’ pubs was made, Varadkar said the situation in Dublin is “markedly different” from the rest of the country.

“Any decisions on any additional restrictions in Dublin will be made tomorrow by Cabinet. But the truth is the situation in Dublin is worrying,” the Tánaiste said. 

“We’ve seen a situation where the incidence of the virus was as low as five or six per 100,000 over 14 days and now it’s hitting about 80.

“Depending on how you count it, a 10 or 20-fold increase in the incidence of the virus in Dublin in the space of a few weeks, and while that has not yet resulted in a dramatic increase in people in hospitals, ICUs or deaths, the truth is it’s probably going to head that way if we don’t get on top of it.

We’ve watched it happening in Madrid and we don’t want to go there. There is an opportunity to flatten the curve and we will have to make a decision as a government tomorrow as to what mix of additional restrictions will be required in the capital.

As part of its advice to government following its meeting last week NPHET recommended that only six people from two other households – instead of three other households, as is currently the case – should visit a home in Dublin. 

Speaking last week, Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said “if at all possible” family gatherings with multiple people from different households in Dublin, such as communions and christenings, should be stopped for the next few weeks.

‘All-encompassing’

It’s been promised the country-wide plan being unveiled today will be “all-encompassing” and will set out clearly the restrictions that will apply at each colour-coded level for social gatherings, sport, travel, entertainment, and work.

When and how each level is introduced will be based on the rate of virus, with more of a focus on the 14-day per 100,000 metric, rather than the daily Covid figures.

There will also also be a focus on ICU and hospitalisation numbers, as well as the number of deaths. (There were 11 people in ICU yesterday. To put that in context, there were 140 people in ICU at the peak in April.)

The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) may not be in the spotlight as much under the new structure.

The Taoiseach has said there will be no “knee-jerk” reactions under the new plan, which will see a new oversight group being established, involving stakeholders and government departments, to implement or modify NPHET’s advice and deliver it to the public.

The move comes after the Tánaiste said recently there should be less of an obsession of the daily Covid figures.

Government sources say ministers believe that in recent months media appearances from NPHET experts have not helped the government’s messaging at times – and that at times their advice has been at odds with final decisions made by government. 

And while the Taoiseach has said the main focus of the plan is to protect public health, and prepare as much as possible for a surge in the numbers this winter, it is equally about protecting livelihoods, and getting back to normal – as far as reasonably possible.

It is about responding with “resilience”, said one government source, who added that structures will be put in place to deal with keeping all aspects of society open, even when numbers rise.

How will the new regional levels work? 

It’s envisaged that different areas around the country could have different colours or levels on any given day depending on instances of Covid-19. 

Level One will be the lowest while Level Five will be the most serious – which would possibly see lockdown measures akin to those at the start of the pandemic being reimposed. Level Four would be similar to the recent restrictions implemented in Kildare, Laois and Offaly.

It is believed that – regardless of the level of the virus in any area – restrictions on household visits will be recommended across all levels of the plan.

At Level One, it is understood the advice will be that no more than ten people from three households visit a home at any given time.

Sports, travel and concerts 

The plan will also deal with mass gatherings, entertainment and sporting events. 

A few hundred people – possibly up to 500 – will be allowed at sporting events in venues  that have a 5,000 capacity, in areas where the virus rate is at its lowest.

Some government ministers are pushing for increased numbers to be permitted at stadiums like Croke Park and the Aviva Stadium, and at large indoor venues like the Three Arena.

In terms of international travel, the Green List will be scrapped at replaced with the European Commission’s new system of colour-coded countries and regions.

That proposal would see zones classified as green, amber or red based on Covid-19 rates.

Travellers returning from green countries would not have to quarantine. The Taoiseach has already confirmed that the country’s Green List will not be updated and a new scheme for travel will be included in the new plan.

Varadkar has said that the government would like for people to be able to travel abroad to visit loved ones for Christmas.

- With reporting by Cónal Thomas and Daragh Brophy

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    Mute mickmc
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    Dec 21st 2016, 7:29 AM

    I love to see the winter solstice arrive. After today the dark days are heading slowly but surely in the right direction.

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    Mute Mick McGuinness
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    Dec 21st 2016, 7:13 AM

    Happy Winter Solstice Ireland

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    Mute Mr Snuffleupagus
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    Dec 21st 2016, 7:16 AM

    @Mick McGuinness: As the shortest day of the year, many, myself included, find this week to be one of the most difficult of the year. On the positive side, from next few weeks onwards, days get longer.

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    Mute Damocles
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    Dec 21st 2016, 9:28 AM

    How does Newgrange compensate for axial tilt changes?

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    Mute Chris Kirk
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    Dec 21st 2016, 9:48 AM

    @Damocles: It probably has built in solar panels supplied by DCC……

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    Mute Gerald Kelleher
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    Dec 21st 2016, 10:44 AM

    @Damocles:

    To answer that question you would need considerable concentration, as much concentration as the original builders of the alignment give in creating a spectacle that is as enjoyable today as it was 5200 years ago when the first people saw it and on the exact same days as today.

    Keep in mind that there is a 1000 year difference between Newgrange and Stonehenge yet both display Solstice alignments which we both enjoy today on the exact same date. This means that nothing has changed in the relationship between the North and South polar points both to the Sun and the circle of illumination as both turn in a small circle annually. Presently it is Polar noon at the South pole where it is position midway to the circle of illumination just as it was 5200 years ago.

    I wouldn’t get caught up in the original technical points of Copernicus but he sacrificed his correct view on the annual motion of the polar points in the period when he wrote his short treatise in 1514 and De Revolutionibus in 1542 -

    “The third is the motion in declination. For, the axis of the daily rotation is not parallel to the Grand Orb’s axis, but is inclined [to it at an angle that intercepts] a portion of a circumference, in our time about 23 1/2°. Therefore, while the earth’s center always remains in the plane of the ecliptic, that is, in the circumference of a circle of the Grand Orb, the earth’s poles rotate, both of them describing small circles about centers [lying on a line that moves] parallel to the Grand Orb’s axis. The period of this motion also is a year, but not quite, being nearly equal to the Grand Orb’s [revolution].” Copernicus

    http://copernicus.torun.pl/en/archives/astronomical/1/?view=transkrypcja&

    In trying to account for the Precession of the Equinoxes to account for the small observed discrepancy he shifted the annual circle scribed by the polar points to the Sun and shoved it into a 25,900 year cycle which is now called axial precession -

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Earth_precession.svg

    It is unfair on the readers here and on me to explain something which is highly intricate however the fact is that Newgrange and Stonehenge along with all ancient alignments from other cultures still hold to the Solstice and Equinox points. If axial precession were true then Newgrange would have lost its Solstice alignment thousands of years ago but that it hasn’t tells those who are considerate and intelligent something.

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    Mute Meanderingsz
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    Dec 21st 2016, 11:42 AM

    @Gerald Kelleher:

    The Newgrange we see today was largely constructed in the 70s and 80s, including the light well.
    Unfortunatly our need to be recognised and celebrated once again lead us to deception – to construct a false monument. Many archeologists have stated there is absolutely no historical significance in the modern light well or the facade of the building – the deception is compounded by the visitor information and graphics used, though everybody agrees the newgrange building is almost entirely less than 50 years old the literature provided to visitors shows ancient people interacting with it.

    Its pathetic that we need to lie about things isnt it?!

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    Mute Ken Mitchell
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    Dec 21st 2016, 12:43 PM

    It’s true they reconstructed it in the 70s but they were basing this on similar ancient monuments they know about around the country – lough crew in nearby oldcastle springs to mind but there are many others around the country that align of specific days. The light actually enters enters the cahmber approx 2 days either side of the equinox so there is a bit of wiggle room in regard to axial tilt and the passage of time.

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    Mute Gerald Kelleher
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    Dec 21st 2016, 12:53 PM

    @Meanderingsz:

    Pathetic indeed !, attention seekers often gain a reputation and a lifestyle by saying Shakespeare didn’t write his prose, Jesus is an invention of St Paul or some variation on that theme. I trust the readers in this thread to consider the exquisite effort and reasoning that goes into these alignments and if you wish to create academic pretense with professor X or Y about the alignment and its age then be my guest however it means that you actually have to account for things as why the alignment stays fixed to the Solstice points.

    The author of the article got a few technical points wrong which I may gently correct. The neolithic builders were not astrologers as astrology is really only associated with the Greek geocentric framework where the Sun was seen to move through the Zodiac with people’s birthday date coinciding with the Sun among a grouping of stars known as constellations. If a person is born from late July through August the Sun is in the constellation Leo. Johannnes Kepler was both an astrologer and an astronomer and it shows up in the technical details of his work however there is an older system of reckoning before the Greeks which the builders of Newgrange and Egypt would have known. They did not think of the motion of the Sun through the Zodiac but the seasonal appearance of certain stars such as the first appearance of Sirius which allows for our present reckoning of the Solstice within the calendar system and more importantly, the geocentric framework of the Greeks.

    “.. on account of the procession of the rising of Sirius by one day in the course of 4 years,.. therefore it shall be, that the year of 360 days and the 5 days added to their end, so one day shall be from this day after every 4 years added to the 5 epagomenae before the new year” Canopus Decree 238 BC

    The further back in history a person is prepared to go the more they love what humanity has achieved and it is possible to correct mistakes picked up along the way and add nothing to the appreciation of what the builders,artists, quarrymen, sailors, architects and the remainder of a national community who built that monument.

    The Equinox alignment of Knowth or Loughcrew plays wonderfully against the exquisite roofbox of Newgrange as the rapid declination of the Sun around the Equinox (when there is a marked difference in the transition to longer or shorter daylight hours) make such a roofbox impossible. It is an honour to appreciate the technical details between the different monuments which is why the ancient community should be admired and with pride.

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    Mute Coles
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    Dec 21st 2016, 1:39 PM

    @Gerald Kelleher: Great contribution.

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    Mute Gerald Kelleher
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    Dec 21st 2016, 5:28 PM

    @Coles:

    Thank you. It is done to allow archaeologists to do their job free of speculation and within the atmosphere of recorded history and especially the astronomical tradition. Newgrange was lost to history for thousands of years but fortunately people cared enough to restore it to a condition that is their best guess and retains most of the significance of the culture that built it and it belongs to them as it does to us as a nation and the world.

    It does happen that astronomical insights become neglected until some event draws attention to their presence. The great modern advancement was accounting for why the planets were seen to move as they did until Copernicus came along and worked out that the slower moving planets fall temporarily behind in view if the Earth is given a faster orbital motion much like a faster car in an inner lane on a traffic roundabout overtakes slower moving cars in outer lanes where they fall behind in view -

    https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap011220.html

    Sadly this perspective was lost to history for a few hundred years but it is back , made possible and easy enough to understand using contemporary time lapse footage. Unless nuisances come in and try to fabricate or distort the history of human achievement then places like Newgrange and astronomical insights are safe but it does take effort to chase away those who would make little of a recent or ancient astronomical heritage.

    Time to move on.

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    Mute Mr Snuffleupagus
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    Dec 21st 2016, 7:14 AM

    interesting claims made by an archaeologist in an IT report today that the suntrap is only 50 years old and was constructed by the late Professor Michael O’ Kelly. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/newgrange-sun-trap-may-be-only-50-years-old-says-archaeologist-1.2913483

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    Mute Austin Rock
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    Dec 21st 2016, 7:29 AM

    @Mr Snuffleupagus: yeah it was the Romans!!!!

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    Mute Gerald Kelleher
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    Dec 21st 2016, 8:03 AM

    @Mr Snuffleupagus:

    There are always academic attention seekers and the nuisance claim is the archaeological equivalent of driving a truck through a crowd enjoying a seasonal spectacle, if people want to give these notions some currency then they miss the point of what a true community achievement is, in this case a society lived on this island who put its talents together to create a giant monument with astronomical significance.

    http://i.imgur.com/5PVx7Mr.jpg

    I took that image in the central chamber yesterday just as the Sun shone out from behind heavy fog which spoiled the spectacle for those who came earlier and had won the right to be in the chamber via a lottery. It is a privilege as an Irish person to see so many talents to combine and have the real pleasure of standing in a place where people once stood 5200 years ago and witnessed that spectacle for the first time. As an astronomer from their tradition there is no greater gift and one I thought I would never experience.

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    Mute Mr Snuffleupagus
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    Dec 21st 2016, 8:19 AM

    @Gerald Kelleher: The automatic assumption that one is an attention seeker or nuisance for presenting alternative views and interpretations, and not without evidence, is a constant. Often, they turn out to be correct. There’s a hell of a lot of supposition applied retrospectively to anything of considerable age. Theories and hypotheses abound. I’ve been there a few times myself and the state run guided tours had no shortage of unsupported supposition too. This is just another one added to the mix but at least he tries to support some of his claims> O’ Kelly’s work was not without criticism from contemporary peers either.

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    Mute Gerald Kelleher
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    Dec 21st 2016, 9:28 AM

    @Mr Snuffleupagus:

    It is all academic pretense and an attempt to start a bun fight when these nuisances have nothing to say, for everyone else the monument itself is one entire structure that contains so many facets of a community from its artistic skills to its seafaring prowess, from its astronomical knowledge to architecture, from surveying to community spirit from across the nation and some of those things which only surface now and again in contemporary life . I would like to think that it has always been a part of this island’s heritage for the many people who now give their time to the GAA or some other organization that offers a spectacle to the wider community.

    The guides and Prof O’Kelly accomplish a remarkable feat in threading the middle ground between wild speculation and academic pretense thereby projecting much of the original value of the monument. As an astronomer I work in the background as, unless you haven’t noticed, Newgrange is a working astronomical monument and has informed me more than once about holes in modern thinking. I knew yesterday that as I stood in the chamber that people 5200 years ago were standing in the exact same spot at the exact same time so that there is a problem with the contemporary explanation for the Precession of the Equinoxes where axial precession is falsely assigned as a cause.

    I have my own private Equinox alignment spectacle about 19 miles to the North of Newgrange where the passageway stones were excavated by the ancient people. The wall of that cave are made of greywacke ,the same material that lines Newgrange and Knowth passageways and a lovely trip for anyone who is down in Clogherhead at 9 AM around the March or September Equinox.

    http://i.imgur.com/8wx48U4.jpg?1

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    Mute Chris Kirk
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    Dec 21st 2016, 9:46 AM

    @Gerald Kelleher: You were indeed very fortunate as the sunlight was perfect yesterday morning, not so sure about this morning though..

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    Mute Gerald Kelleher
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    Dec 21st 2016, 10:01 AM

    @Chris Kirk:

    To be fair Chris, the morning was anything but ideal for those who had been accorded the right to be in the chamber as the Sun comes into view from behind a distant hill .

    http://i.imgur.com/rw77bcq.jpg

    I was one of the stragglers that stayed behind and just as I entered the chamber the Sun came out when its height was above the low lying fog so by the grace of God I got to witness something special.

    http://i.imgur.com/lvcO9BL.jpg

    I suppose it not just one thing but the whole structure and experience that makes the visit special and even standing outside can be just as satisfying as being inside. In a few days the arc of the Sun will begin to expand and the exquisitely positioned roofbox pointing at a position on a distant hill will be too low to deliver direct sunlight to the chamber. For those who are outside on the Solstice they have time to consider what happens at this time of the year and no other.

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    Mute longhandle
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    Dec 21st 2016, 2:36 PM

    A fantastic spot. I’m not spiritual at all but, there is something very calming about Newgrange.

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