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14th Jul 2021

Unvaccinated staff working in indoor dining is “low risk”, says Tony Holohan

Stephen Porzio

“Vaccination is not the only protection,” the CMO noted.

Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Tony Holohan has said unvaccinated staff working in indoor dining under the Covid pass system being developed represents a “low risk” for Covid-19 transmission.

Speaking during a Department of Health briefing on Wednesday, the CMO said: “Arrangements are being put in place… to try to provide for Covid pass access to indoor facilities.

“[For] staff working in those situations where you have a high standard of maintenance of public health guidance, vaccination is not the only protection.

“If your clientele, in a sense, are low risk in the sense that they are vaccinated, if the other public health measures that are in place for your protection are in place, this is a workplace – like many other workplaces – that we think it will be appropriate for people to be able to continue service provision in.”

He later added: “If the staff are working in an environment and the clientele that they’re serving are vaccinated, in effect, we think that the risk in that environment is low – if there’s good observation of the other measures that are in place to protect those staff.”

The CMO highlighted that there are many other workplaces where people continue to work where the employees’ protection comes from the observation of a high standard of public health guidelines.

“Guidance is now being developed to be applied in all those settings to try to ensure that high standard is maintained across all those facilities,” Holohan said.

During the briefing, 783 new cases of Covid-19 were reported in Ireland, the highest number since 20 February.

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