Day of hope, caution and personal revelations: Six things we learned from Nphet’s appearance before TDs

And he agreed, jokingly, he is "shy and retiring" and hopes to escape the spotlight when we are all vaccinated against Covid-19 and virus levels are low.

However, there were also some significant disclosures about how we are advancing in fighting the pandemic.

Here are six things were learned.

Exit plan

If the spread of the virus remains stable and vaccination roll-out keeps pace with expectations, the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) will set out a timetable for the reopening of various areas of social and business life.

Dr Glynn said this forward plan would span each month, including July.

Some of the first lifting of restrictions would be around click-and-collect, non-essential shops and outdoor training.

He said by the end of this month, there will be an indicative higher level plan. "At the end of this month, we will see how we have gone through April and set out a plan for the next three months. As part of that we will be giving consideration to the whole area of hospitality.”

Asked about the difference between wet pubs and gastro pubs from a public health viewpoint, he said: “Nphet never said one word about a €9 meal. But we do have a concern about alcohol in the context of a global pandemic and again I know I will be painted in the wrong way about this but you cannot get away from the point that when we have a few drinks, we let our guard down. We are less likely to social distance and follow all the measures we should be following.

"Many of these establishments are poorly ventilated and it involves mixing of many multiple households."

It is not a message anyone wants to hear but they are in relative terms high-risk environments, he insisted.

They must be balanced against the need to open schools and restore non-Covid healthcare, he added.

"We all want to go to the pub but we are not there yet."

Possible dark clouds

Nphet is pleasantly surprised at the lower daily virus cases, fall in hospitalisations and overall stability of the last week or so. Up to midnight on Sunday, the 14-day incidence rate was 132, a drop of 15pc on the previous week. Case numbers on Sunday were the lowest since mid-December. The numbers of Covid-19 patients in hospital is down and ICU patients are now at 50, the lowest since New Year’s Day.

"There are reasons to be hopeful," he said.

However, the threat of a fourth wave hovers, although he is not predicting one. But it would only take a few ‘superspreader’ events, particularly if one involved a more infectious variant, to topple us back into crisis.

The message is keep contacts low, work from home if you can and watch out for socialising around schools. He said the biggest concern about schools reopening will dictate if the wider society can go back to work or be more mobile. On the positive side, there is a lot more outdoor activity .

No summer sun holiday

Dr Glynn more or less cancelled any travel abroad for this summer. He said there is still too much uncertainty.

Asked about summer holidays abroad, he said there is too much uncertainty around the European situation at present to give anyone any measure of confidence in relation to travel at this point.

"I hope that we will have a very open and good summer this year and I hope that the emphasis will be on the hospitality sector within this country, keeping us all safe and the disease under control."

Vaccination and quarantine

Any change in the rule which says people vaccinated against Covid-19 must quarantine if they are coming from one of the listed countries, was ruled out for now.

Dr Glynn was asked if two people from different households in this country who are fully vaccinated can meet up indoors, then why does somebody from abroad who is fully vaccinated has to quarantine in a hotel when they could do so at home. He said there are a variety of reasons why they must quarantine in a hotel.

No vaccine is 100pc effective, he said. Different vaccines can have different impacts on transmission of the virus from one person to another.

"We will learn more about that in the coming weeks," he said.

Different strains will have impact on different vaccines. There are now daily reports internationally of cases and clusters arising in people who have been fully vaccinated, he said. This is particularly an issue with the South African variant.

There is also still a question about the length of immunity from the virus that vaccines give. And there is a need for clarity around vaccination certificates and how valid or authentic they are.

AstraZeneca vaccine

Commenting on the decision to restrict the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to people over 60 because of a very small risk of serious blood clots, he said the approach was conservative. They could have opted for a younger age cut-off.

He said he expected some hesitancy around taking it, but pointed out that people who have concerns could talk to their GPs about it. The risks from Covid-19 far outweigh a chance of a blood clot, he added.

Nphet’s farewell

Asked about how long he believes there will be a need for Nphet, he said: "I certainly hope we can move shortly away from the spotlight that we don't want. We have a public health role to play. I would hope that as vaccination rolls out and we can keep incidence low, that our role can become less and less visible and less and less on the front pages of newspapers. That is not where we want to be, contrary to some opinion. It is not what we enjoy.”

Asked by committee chairman Deputy Seán Crowe: "So you want to be more shy and retiring, Ronan?"

He replied: "Definitely."

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