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The UK's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said the country was “near the limit” of reopening. PA Images

Covid 'trade off': Pubs in England may have to close again so schools can reopen

More than 4,000 new cases were occurring daily last week in England.

UK PUBS MAY have to shut in order for schools to reopen, according to a pandemic expert, as concern turned to a rise in infections among young people.

Professor Graham Medley, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said ministers might have to consider closing pubs in England in order for lessons to start again next month.

Pubs reopened in England almost a month ago.  

Boris Johnson has previously pledged that both primary and secondary schools will return in September “with full attendance”.

But, following chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty’s prediction that the country was “near the limit” for opening up society following the coronavirus lockdown, Prof Medley said a “trade off” might have to be made to ensure full-time education could resume.

The warning came as the Prime Minister announced a slow down of the lockdown easing, with planned relaxations for the leisure and beauty sectors delayed after a rise in Covid-19 cases was recorded.

When asked whether pubs could have to shut for schools to reopen, Prof Medley, chairman of the Sage sub-group on pandemic modelling, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think that’s quite possible.

I think we’re in a situation whereby most people think that opening schools is a priority for the health and wellbeing of children and that when we do that we are going to reconnect lots of households.

“And so actually, closing some of the other networks, some of the other activities may well be required to enable us to open schools.

“It might come down to a question of which do you trade off against each other and then that’s a matter of prioritising, do we think pubs are more important than schools?”

Labour shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth told Sky News it should be a “national priority to get our children back into school” and that the country had to do “all we can” to suppress the virus over August.

Meanwhile, businesses expecting to reopen in England have been told to keep their shutters down by the government, despite the furlough scheme preventing job losses starting to wind down from today.

Bowling alleys and other leisure venues were scheduled to welcome customers today for the first time since the March lockdown was brought in, while small wedding receptions and indoor performances were set to resume.

Close-contact services in beauty salons, such as facials and make-up application, were also due to recommence but the Prime Minister delayed the measures for at least a fortnight, just as employers start paying National Insurance and pension contributions for furloughed staff, before having to contribute to their salaries next month.

Labour has warned that bosses have been left with the “stark choice” of laying off staff or pay a “hefty financial burden” of keeping them in employment unless the Government adopts a more flexible approach.

Johnson told a Downing Street press conference yesterday he needed to “squeeze the brake pedal” on easing restrictions amid signs Covid-19’s prevalence in the community was rising for the first time since May.

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Prof Medley, a London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine academic, said the increase in positive diagnoses was mainly among young people.

“The age distribution of infections has changed, it has moved down into younger age groups and so it is likely we won’t see that increase in hospital admissions related to infection in the same way we did in March,” he told the BBC.

But the big fear is the virus just gets out of control and we end up in a situation where there is so much virus that it inevitably spills out into all sections of the population.

The news came after local lockdown measures were announced this week for parts of the north-west of England and areas of west Yorkshire, banning people from different households meeting indoors or in gardens following a spike in virus cases.

The new rules also banned members of two different households from mixing in pubs, restaurants and other hospitality venues, but these businesses will remain open for those visiting individually or from the same household.

Experts have warned that the Office for National Statistics’ report of an increase in the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in England, with more than 4,000 new cases thought to be occurring daily last week, meant more local lockdowns, including travel restrictions, could be reimposed.

Sage attendee Professor John Edmunds said there were “worrying signs that require action to be taken to reverse the trend”.

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    Mute Dunnesy
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    Aug 1st 2013, 6:57 AM

    The rates are going back up but the level of service and overall standard of the hotels have gotten worse

    107
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    Mute Trish Ni Laoire-Duinn
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    Aug 1st 2013, 8:48 AM

    yes especially if you are using a pigsback voucher!

    31
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    Mute GatheringYourMoney13
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    Aug 1st 2013, 9:02 AM

    That’s impressive
    No doubt NAMA hotels probably loose €10,000 per room.

    8
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    Mute BadDrivingIreland
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    Aug 1st 2013, 7:22 AM

    As a regular hotel user, prices are going up, service is going down, hoteliers are their own words enemy.

    92
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    Mute David Keogh
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    Aug 1st 2013, 10:32 AM

    I would partially agree with you regarding hotels in Dublin City Centre. I don’t blame the staff though. The work most hotels make their staff do, along with the lengthy shifts are questionably legal at best.

    In my opinion, many Dublin City Centre hotels are actually damaging the industry with their extortionate prices. Tourists may stay once, but they wont return at those costs!

    25
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    Mute Richard Mc Dermott
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    Aug 1st 2013, 9:15 AM

    10000 profit per room and most staff on min wage with little or no rights And as a long suffering hotel worker belive me thats true in most hotels

    87
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    Mute Ashley Rowland
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    Aug 1st 2013, 9:29 AM

    Sure look at the Callaghan hotel group that tried to force some of their foreign national workers to sign up for a cut in their minimum wage telling them they couldn’t afford to pay them but at same time were spending 10,000 euro a day in the high court trying to stop unions from stopping them… Some evil folk out there that’s for sure.

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    Mute Richard Mc Dermott
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    Aug 1st 2013, 9:34 AM

    Sure half the hotels in dublin are owned by banks so no guesses were all the profits are gone into the pokets of the people who caused this in the first place

    32
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    Mute Dave Gaughran
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    Aug 1st 2013, 10:30 AM

    Hotel workers should join a union.

    24
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    Mute Ted Carroll
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    Aug 1st 2013, 10:59 AM

    Dave, what purpose will that serve? A union can only do anything in the public sector and and even at that they do very very little. Unions have long forgotten their purpose and should be abandoned by every single worker in the public sector. Appoint people amongst yourselves to represent you and save yourself the money of funding the most ludicrous organisations in the country.

    20
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    Mute Dave Gaughran
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    Aug 1st 2013, 11:51 AM

    The argument is simple, they shd say, we took pay cuts, pay freezes etc when the hotels were in trouble.
    Now they are making sky high profits and we want everything that was taken from us back + more.

    Yeah the top of most unions are tied to the labour party etc, but I’m not sure about going it alone, it makes a big difference to have a union organiser talk to workers, rather than just starting from scratch.

    Anyhow now a days you can join a union online, get your workmates to join the same one (in secret), and get a union organiser to meet them somewhere and take it from there.

    7
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    Mute Iam D Best
    Favourite Iam D Best
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    Aug 1st 2013, 5:57 PM

    exactly, and not just Hotels, they’d go about telling you then “ah business is slack, we’re very quiet, tourist trade is down” and so and so forth. Old Old excuses, total lies. They’ve been playing that card now for 5 years in order to cut wages, staff and feed their greedy mouths.

    4
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    Mute Iam D Best
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    Aug 1st 2013, 6:00 PM

    spot on Ashley, they’re ALL corrupt, right down the line

    1
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    Mute Niall Murray
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    Aug 1st 2013, 6:51 PM

    90% of hotels aren’t making any money, fact.
    I could name 10 hotels that people think are “flying” but all with net worth of -€5m, there is no comeback from that, they only showed retained profits of €150k max even during the good times.
    Hotels that have valued their assets upwards of €30 million but are worth nothing in today’s market, maybe 5-7m at a huge push.
    Anyone with access to CRO figures for hotels will know what I’m on about.

    Big hotels with golf clubs that are loosing 500-700k per year but the banks are not willing to move in as it will cost that to maintain the properties per year with the golf courses.

    6
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    Mute Ted Carroll
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    Aug 1st 2013, 6:59 AM

    I dislike the idea of the average hotel price included! A separate weekend/weekday average would be needed as I know that the average prices listed above for Dublin are certainly not indicative of an average weekend room rate!

    66
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    Mute BadDrivingIreland
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    Aug 1st 2013, 7:24 AM

    Also to add they now use the per person per room trick rather than room rate.

    49
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    Mute Steve Hardy
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    Aug 1st 2013, 7:07 AM

    That’s the end of the recession so, we’ve turned the corner, spread the news

    36
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    Mute Jay Thompson
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    Aug 1st 2013, 7:22 AM

    Quick everybody get a second car and a huge mortage we on d mend ha

    54
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    Mute Steve Hardy
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    Aug 1st 2013, 7:23 AM

    The editor of the Indo’s property pages just got a semi.

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    Mute Abinger Hammer
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    Aug 1st 2013, 8:26 AM

    I thought he was detached.

    34
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    Mute Iam D Best
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    Aug 1st 2013, 5:58 PM

    no no, we’re still in recession, we need to cut wages more and more, we still need that excuse to line our pockets, it’s our only hope cos we’re greedy :/

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    Mute Ashley Rowland
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    Aug 1st 2013, 8:19 AM

    Dublin Dublin Dublin… Yawn.. That big green space West of the m50 will soon be called outer space the way this country is going….

    35
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    Mute Darren O Siadhail
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    Aug 1st 2013, 8:35 AM

    Hotels in fields are you suggesting? I’m confused!

    15
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    Mute Martin Sinnott
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    Aug 1st 2013, 7:46 AM

    The European presidency filled many hotel rooms, it was a one off ! This should be a warning, next year the figures won’t look so good.

    32
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    Mute Luke
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    Aug 1st 2013, 8:08 AM

    You’re hoping aren’t you?

    13
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    Mute Vinnie Bonar
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    Aug 1st 2013, 8:20 AM

    Not that many, sorry to disappoint.

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    Mute Michael Brady
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    Aug 1st 2013, 8:34 AM

    The EU presidency was in 2013 – this survey was taken in 2012.

    24
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    Mute Nelly
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    Aug 1st 2013, 6:58 AM

    That’s great news hopefully the rest of the industry picks up to

    29
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    Mute Alan Rooney
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    Aug 1st 2013, 1:16 PM

    Articles like this have the potential to be quite damaging to the hotel industry! It’s not so black and white people!

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    Mute Simon McGrath
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    Aug 1st 2013, 9:09 AM

    No surprise there still being ripped off

    7
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    Mute Iam D Best
    Favourite Iam D Best
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    Aug 1st 2013, 6:01 PM

    good news though, keep it coming, its greedy stories like this that tell us all NOT to book a hotel room cos we know their workers are underpaid.

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    Mute Alan Rooney
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    Aug 1st 2013, 11:44 PM

    My above point is now proven!

    1
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