On: Ireland drops most Covid restrictions in wake of 'Omicron storm'

[Simon_O_Rourke]

Dev I know working there has said the pubs were closing really early, with the result that people simply moved the party back home afterwards.

As a policy to stop groups getting COVID, it seems it encouraged the thing it was trying to prevent.

Anyway, kudos to them for going back to something like normalcy, I must go back there on vacation!

[OliverM → Simon_O_Rourke]

Unless the entire pub went to the same house, that behaviour still sounds like a reduction in transmission risk

[jcul → OliverM]

People also went to the pubs much earlier, and then then went to house parties, instead of going home at 8pm, having spend the same amount of time in the pub.

Also the pubs had limits on number of people to a table, table service only etc.

On the other hand a lot of people just didn't bother going out due to the early closing time. For a lot of people going out earlier wasn't an option.

So hard to say if it was a net reduction or increase in risk.