How Ireland went through five different waves of Covid-19 – but now we are ready to enter a new phase

On 11 March, the same day the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the COVID-19 emergency a global pandemic, the first person died from the virus in Ireland.

By St Patrick’s Day 2020 Ireland had entered its first full lockdown, as public health officials and the government sought to understand and suppress the invisible enemy.

Everyone was asked to do their part to ‘flatten the curve’ of the virus, which involved people staying at home except for vital journeys such as food shopping, medical care and going into work for ‘essential workers’.

Government supports including the rates waivers for businesses, the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) and the Pandemic

Unemployment Payment (PUP) were introduced to keep suffering businesses afloat, to help the newly unemployed to survive financially and to avoid a major recession.

Daily case numbers in the first wave peaked on April 15 when 1,068 new infections were reported at the 7-day average of new cases stood at 925.

Thereafter, the incidence of the disease began to drop steadily across society, but Ireland still endured the longest lockdown in Europe - particularly for hospitality and non-essential retail businesses.

On June 8 members of the public were permitted to anywhere within their county of residence for the first time since March as part of the government's roadmap to reopening society. At this time, non-essential retail also reopened, indoor and outdoor gatherings of up to six people were allowed and contact training resumed for groups of up to 15 people.

On June 28 the country’s public health officials were notified of just three new cases of Covid-19.

The reopening roadmap accelerated further on June 29 with the much-anticipated return of indoor dining at restaurants, pubs and hotel bars which served food. ‘Wet pubs’ (pubs which do not serve food), as they came to be known, could not reopen as customers needed to purchase a €9 meal to order a drink. A 90-minute time limit was also set for pub and restaurant customers, while group sizes were limited to six persons.

The first wave, which lasted up until the start of August 2020, claimed the lives of 1,763 people. Up to July 31, 26,109 cases had been reported and 3,352 people had been hospitalised with the disease.

Second wave: weeks 32 - 47 2020

Following an increase in cases in July, Government ministers paused plans to continue lifting restrictions. By August, the second wave of the pandemic had begun in earnest with a series of regional lockdowns.

The most notable of these was the three-week reintroduction of restrictions in counties Kildare, Laois and Offaly.

By the middle of October, the country was back in a full lockdown, which the Government planned to introduce for six weeks.

An additional 44,034 cases were reported over this period while 259 more lives had been lost - bringing the total number of Covid-19 deaths to 2,022.

Third wave/B 1.1.7 variant: week 48 2020 - week 25 2021

At the end of November, the government announced a phased easing of restrictions as it attempted to facilitate a ‘meaningful Christmas’.

Initially the plan was to allow hospitality to return (with some restrictions) and three households to mix from December 18 to January 6. However, by December 22, Taoiseach Micheál Martin confirmed a return to stricter coronavirus restrictions as public health experts said case numbers could rise to over 2,000 a day by New Year’s Eve.

Despite the emergency reintroduction of restrictions, cases number soared over the coming weeks, with hospitals and ICUs coming under pressure like never before.

This wave was driven by the highly transmissible B.1.1.7 variant which was first detected in the UK.

There were over 2,000 Covid-19 patients in Irish hospitals on January 18, 2021, including 196 people in ICU.

Three weeks earlier, on December 29, 2020, Dubliner Annie Murphy became the first person in Ireland to get a Covid-19 vaccine.

For the second year in a row, all official St Patrick’s Day celebrations were cancelled, however, by this time 3.4pc of the population had been fully vaccinated and 9.5pc had received at least one dose.

Over the coming months the vaccination programme began to expand rapidly and by the end of May the Government announced that restrictions on hospitality and cultural venues, hairdressers and sporting activities would ease once more and non-essential overseas travel resumed.

By June 24, over 2.5m people in Ireland has received one vaccine dose and 33.5pc of the population was fully vaccinated.

At the end of the third wave, 271,260 cases of Covid-19 had been confirmed since February 2020 and 4,989 people had died.

Fourth wave/ Delta variant: weeks 26 - 51 2021

By July, the Delta variant – which caused devastation in countries such as India – had reached Irish shores. The latest Covid-19 strain was the most infectious yet and the race was on to get as many people vaccinated as possible to limit the damage it could cause.

There were four vaccines available in Ireland during the summer of 2021 - Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Jansen’s single-shot jab - and by September 10, 90pc of adults in Ireland were fully vaccinated.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly described the high vaccination rate as a “major milestone”, while on the same day there were 328 Covid-19 patients in hospitalised, with 59 in ICU.

By the end of November, the number of Coronavirus patients in hospital had risen to almost 600 and employees were being asked to work from home again where possible.

At the start of December, the Omicron variant – which originated in southern Africa – was first detected in Ireland. In response to the latest, highly infectious strain, government officials introduced mask wearing for children aged nine years and older in schools and members of the public were officially advised to use antigen tests for the first time.

By Christmas Eve, case numbers were skyrocketing, the country’s PCR testing system was at capacity, an 8pm curfew was imposed on hospitality business and cultural and sporting events, while these events were also subject to capacity limits.

At the start of the fifth wave, 5,890 people had died from Covid-19 and 691,557 infections had been reported in total.

Fifth wave/ Omicron variant: Weeks 51 2021 - three 2022

In an effort to protect the public from the Omicron variant, the health service pushed to get as many adults and young people boosted as possible over the Christmas period and to begin vaccinating children under 12-years.

By St Stephen’s Day, over 2m additional doses had been administered and to-date that number has risen to over 2.6 million.

A record daily case total was reported on January 8 at 26,122, however, pressure on hospitals and ICU was not as severe as health officials feared.

Over the next week the number of people in hospital with the virus rose slightly but the numbers in intensive care largely stayed the same.

Meanwhile, overall case numbers dropped drastically to 11,682 by January 18.

As of January 20, the total number of people who have died from Covid-19 stood at 6,087 while over 1,130,000 cases of the virus have been reported since the outbreak in February 2020.

The ‘new phase’

Speaking ahead of the major easing of restrictions announced this evening, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said Ireland is entering a “new phase” in the battle with Covid-19.

Mr Martin said the success of the vaccination and booster campaigns, coupled with evidence that proves Omicron is less harmful than previous strains, led to the removal of the most severe public health measures.

Addressing the nation,  he said: “Spring is coming and I don’t know if I’ve ever looked forward to one as much as I’m looking forward to this one.”

"Humans are social beings and we Irish are more social than most. As we look forward to this Spring, we need to see each other again, we need to see each other smile, we need to sing again,” he added.