After much anticipation and multiple press leaks over the last week, Taoiseach Micheál Martin announced an updated “Living with COVID” plan for Ireland this evening.
The strict “Level 5” restrictions will continue until at least April 5th — only essential businesses will remain open (grocery stores etc), everyone who has been working from home are expected to continue to do so, the 5 km travel restriction will continue, and no socialising with other households.
Schools will begin a phased re-opening starting next week, with each stage conditioned upon new transmissions being contained.
The Taoiseach also stated there would be a “major ramping up” of the vaccination programme with these projections:
by end of April:
40% of people over 18 will have first dose
by end of May:
up to 64% of people will have had their first dose
by end of June:
82% will have first dose of vaccine, and 60% will be fully vaccinated
There have been lots of frustrations and criticisms over the government’s lack of a coherent response. No one is happy about the continued restrictions, but the number of new daily cases is still stubbornly more than 500. However, the vaccinations projections given by the Taoiseach give some cause for optimism.
In terms of personal updates, it’s been a “meh” day. FedEx delivered the hard-copy CMA materials this morning. The rain arrived as forecasted mid-day, so I forego getting out for a walk. In the afternoon, I have a call with a recruiting firm that specialises in nonprofits. They don’t have any concrete prospects to offer me, and the biggest take-away is the reinforcement that having an accountancy qualification is essential for finance jobs. Afterwards, I pick back up where I left off with my CMA study program. So far I’m keeping pace with the timeline. This week I’m wrapping up the first of six sections of material covered in the first qualifying exam (there are another six sections of material for the second exam). I’ll be doing some practice tests that should give me an idea of how well I’m retaining the information.
Until next time….
