Professor Paddy Mallon:

I believe the opening up that is happening at the moment is being undertaken generally responsibly because we have good data on community transmission. Provided we can watch community transmission, we will be able to see the impact of the relaxation of restrictions. I had a lot of concerns that we were doing it too quickly but those concerns have not played out in increased rates of community transmission. I will still be concerned, especially as we move into the next phase when we will see much more movement of people. That is going to be a real test. At every stage, we need to watch, but as long as we are able to accurately observe the community transmission rates, we will get the information we need in order to know whether we are going too fast or too slow.