THE Republic of Ireland yesterday announced law-backed restrictions that effectively put the entire population into lockdown though the Government said it was not a lockdown as such.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who is staying in post despite losing the General Election, warned people to “stay at home if at all possible”.

He said: “Individuals should work from home if possible and all non-essential indoor visits to other people’s homes should be avoided. We cannot stop the virus but we can push it back, all of our resources are being deployed in the national effort.”

The country’s tourism industry will be badly affected. The government has now formally advised the closure of restaurants, cafes, hairdressers, theatres and clubs and a range of other service sectors regarded as non-essential.

Hotels must restrict guest numbers and all theatres, clubs, bingo halls and hairdressers are to shut, while cafes and restaurants should restrict their operations to take away only.

With more than 1000 cases of Covid-19 confirmed in the country, Ireland’s chief medical officer Tony Holohan said measures had to be stepped up.

He said: “45% of the cases have been community transmission where we have not been able to identify the original source through contact tracing and one in four of the cases are healthcare workers. We need to move rapidly, comprehensively and quickly. That is why we have stepped up the measures.”

The Taoiseach added: “This is not a lockdown. I wouldn’t use the term lockdown.

“It is a term that causes a lot more confusion than clarity and is therefore one that I don’t intend to use.

“I heard Italy was in lockdown but then factories and construction sites are still open.”

He continued: “Any person in a household who is asked to self-isolate because a fellow householder is showing symptoms is entitled to €350 per week.”

Jobless totals soar in Norway over virus
NORWAY, one of Scotland’s near neighbours with a similar population to us, has seen a massive rise in unemployment due to Covid-19 having a severe impact on the country’s tourism and retail sectors in particular.

Unlike the UK, Norway can give weekly updates of unemployment rates and the latest figures show that registered unemployment rose to 10.9%, up from 5.3% a week ago and just 2.3% at the end of February.

The data from Norway’s Labour and Welfare Agency showed the worst unemployment rate since the 1930s, but the country that found oil and gas in its waters just before Scotland did will have no problem meeting social security payments as it set up a Sovereign Wealth Fund back in the 1970s when successive British governments did not, and that Fund is now worth more than £1 trillion.

Nevertheless the rapid collapse of the job market has stunned Norwegians.

Sigrun Vageng (pictured below), the head of the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Agency, said in a statement: “The development in the Norwegian labour market over the past two weeks has no historical precedent.”

According to Bloomberg: “The Norwegian government has vowed to do everything it can to support the economy, and has so far presented measures totalling about 280 billion kroner ($25 billion), ranging from deferred taxes to higher unemployment benefits and loan guarantees.”

Norway has reported 2566 people infected with the coronavirus, of whom 12 have died. The country is not yet in full lockdown but severe restrictions on movement are in place.

The National:

First Icelander dies from coronavirus
ICELAND yesterday announced its first death from coronavirus among its own citizens.

Scotland’s near neighbour has been taking extensive steps to contain Covid-19 but it was reported yesterday that a woman aged 70 with underlying health conditions had succumbed to the disease at the National University hospital in Reykjavik.

A 36-year-old Australian man had previously died on the island.

Iceland has been rigorous in testing much of its population of 360,000. Iceland’s former prime minister David Gunnlaugsson told the Spectator what this meant.

He wrote: “The testing conducted by the National Health Service in Iceland along with further screening has already yielded some interesting results. Researchers at DeCode genetics have found 40 mutations of the coronavirus in Iceland alone; one individual had been infected by two variants at the same time.

“This is both good and bad news: the theory is that such mutations will make the virus more contagious but potentially less dangerous to those that are affected. Screening also indicates that children seem much less likely to catch the virus, but this may be influenced by the fact that children generally have mild symptoms.”

The National:

Iceland has not gone into lockdown yet but Gunnlaugsson states: “All countries should listen to the World Health Organisation and follow the example of Iceland when it comes to the mantra ‘test, test, test’. But we also need to take all possible measures to limit the spread of the disease as the Asian countries have done successfully.

“For now, this approach seems to be the only answer in order to help Western health care systems deal with the problem.

“It also buys valuable time to build ventilators and other supplies, develop treatments and then, hopefully, find a vaccine.”