Ireland Tightens Curbs After ‘Appalling’ Bar Scene, Food Woe

(Bloomberg) -- At the end of July, O’Brien Fine Foods discovered one coronavirus case among its workers. Within a week, the Irish company was dealing with 80 cases.

O’Brien’s, whose clients include Tesco Plc, suspended production at its plant in Kildare, west of Dublin. Three nearby food producers have done the same, and on Tuesday, Glanbia Plc reported four positive cases in the same area.

In the capital, a video emerged of a barman standing on a counter to pour shots into customers’ mouths at a brunch event, a scene Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin described as “appalling.”

Against that backdrop, Martin moved to tighten restrictions late yesterday. Just six people will be allowed gather at homes, all sporting events will move back behind closed doors and police will be given powers to enforce rules in bars, in a bid to halt the march of the virus. Some 190 new cases were recorded on Tuesday, five times the recent daily rate.

The measures will feel “like a kick in the teeth for many,” said Dermot O’Leary, chief economist at Goodbody Stockbrokers. “We are not health experts but find it hard to understand how policies can differ so much given that the science remains the same across the world.”

Martin’s administration faced a growing backlash on Wednesday, as concern mounted around the fate of the economy. Dublin-based Ryanair Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest discount carrier, called on the government to expand its list of countries safe to visit, saying the country’s “isolationist” strategy had failed.

The Gaelic Athletic Association, the biggest sporting body in the country, demanded empirical evidence for stopping spectators attending games, while main opposition party Sinn Fein said the government had “dropped the ball” in dealing with the crisis.

Outbreaks in food producers globally are nothing new. But, in Ireland, the clusters are especially chilling, casting a shadow over one of its most valuable industries. Illustrating the stakes at play, shares in Dublin-based Greencore Plc plunged last week, after it emerged that 300 workers at a British plant had tested positive for the virus.

Virus Can Travel 26 Feet at Cold Meat Plants With Stale Air

About 250,000 Irish jobs are linked to the industry, according to industry group Food Drink Ireland. The nation is the largest net exporter of dairy ingredients, beef and lamb in Europe, and much of Ireland’s economic recovery depends on the sector. Ireland is the biggest supplier of food and drink to the U.K.

After the food clusters emerged, authorities sprang into action. Three counties around the affected plants have been locked down. That wasn’t enough to stop the virus, though, with the country reported 200 new virus cases on Saturday, the most since May.

“If you get a significant pocket or reservoir or outbreak of disease in a population that has relaxed a bit the basic preventative measures, it’s like fire into a tinderbox,” Philip Nolan, a government adviser on the virus, said in a RTE Radio interview on Wednesday. “The level of community transmission appears to have doubled over the last 10 days.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.