The Prime Minister of Ireland expressed his regret on Thursday regarding the decision to ease the blocking rules in the country around Christmas.
In an interview with CNN’s Becky Anderson, Micheal Martin said, “If we knew then what we know now, we certainly wouldn’t have made that decision now.”
Ireland is blocked again after tightening restrictions in December, leading to one of the highest infection rates in the world by January.
Martin added that Ireland would remain in a blockade “long enough” to reduce the number of hospitals.
The British variant is now responsible for 70% of Covid-19 cases in Ireland, Martin said.
“I believe that globally, we need to step up vaccination efforts, because it is important that the whole world be vaccinated, not just the countries that are richer and are able to do it sooner,” he said.
He added that “new options could undermine the vaccination effort” and reiterated that Ireland’s goal remains to vaccinate 80% of people by September.
“It has been somewhat disrupted by problems with the AstraZeneca vaccine and its supply, and we are not receiving the same level of supply that we thought we would get at the beginning of the year, and that is part of the wider EU procurement problem with AstraZeneca,” he said. Martin, however, said the country gets higher volumes of other vaccines in the second quarter of the year.