The Irish Government has said the current lock-down, due to expire at the end of January, would continue for at least five more weeks.
At the earliest, the Republic would now come out of
lock-down on March 5th, an additional lock-down period of five weeks.
The Irish road racing season was due to start on the
weekend of Saturday and Sunday March 6th and 7th.
There were already concerns for the early season races,
as cycling races and other events and gatherings are not permitted under
lock-down. The extension of the current lock-down for five more weeks underscores those concerns and is in line when plans in the North.
The Gorey Three Day stage race, due to be held on the Easter Bank Holiday Weekend at the start of April, has already said it would not go ahead on those dates due to the pandemic.
Advertisement
Related News
The Irish Government has said even if Covid-19 cases continued
to fall – as they have been for weeks – there would still be significant
numbers of people with Covid-19 in hospital, including those in ICU.
One of the main reasons for lock-down is to take pressure
off the Irish health system and until both case numbers and Covid-19 patients
in hospitals reduce very significantly, the Government wants to keep lock-down
in place.
At present, the current lock-down measures include a
restriction of 5km for exercising around a person’s home. It was expected that
measure would remain in place until March 5th, though a specific announcement
about that has not yet been made.
Cycling Ireland has prepared a submission for the
authorities about the impact of Level 5 restrictions on cycling and the impact
of the restrictions that would apply when the Republic moves to Level 4 or
Level 3.
The Government has said it planned to move slowly and
conservatively out of the current restrictions and it was not expected, for
example, that all school children would be back in classrooms before the end of
March.
Topics
