One-third of customers eating or drinking inside cafes, pubs and restaurants say their Covid-19 certificate was not checked, as required under law, according to a new study.
Some 73 per cent of people report having the digital Covid certificate, according to the latest social activity measure from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and, for the first time this year, more people now stay (outdoors or indoors) than get takeaway.
Behaviour in pubs is substantially higher risk than behaviour in cafes and restaurants, according to the research covering the period August 10th-17th. Pub-goers meet three times as many people from other households, are more likely to meet indoors and are more likely to stay over two hours. Customers were also less likely to wear masks, as were staff.
Despite the return of indoor dining and drinking in late-July, no increase in visits to cafes, pubs and restaurants had been recorded by mid-August. In the latest update, the average number of locations outside the home that a person visited fell slightly.
The average number of people met outside the household remained stable at 3.5 over a 48-hour period, including an average of one person who was not vaccinated.
On the day prior to the survey, 33 per cent had had a close contact – 27 per cent while not wearing a mask – and 28 per cent had either visited another home or received a visitor in their own.
Riskier behaviour
According to the study, a small but growing minority of people take substantially more risk than the rest of the population. They are much more socially active and do not follow guidance for reducing risk.
About one in six people who attended substantially more risk social settings are described in the report as “socialisers”.
Another group, referred to as “non-mitigators”, adhere to social distancing, mask-wearing and hand-washing advice less than half the time. This group has grown to 24 per cent of the population, from 14 per cent in April.
The proportion of the population who are both “socialisers” and “non-mitigators” has also grown steadily, to 11 per cent.
“Although these people engage in much riskier behaviour than the average person, they mostly see themselves as low risk. They are also more likely to view restrictions as unfair,” according to the study.
The social activity monitor is a behavioural study that measures the public response to the risk of Covid-19 infection, and to public health guidelines.
In workplaces, the proportion of workers who report that they wear a mask, that others wear masks, and that they maintain social distance have all fallen over the summer, although the proportion reporting good ventilation in the workplace has not.
The study also reports stability in the numbers crossing county or country borders, with about 70 per cent of people not planning to travel abroad this year.
The study records a slight increase in vaccine hesitancy, with more than 10 per cent of young adults (under 40) saying they will not get immunised.
Vaccine hesitancy
According to a separate tracker survey published on Monday, vaccine hesitancy has dropped by 36 percentage points over the past 10 months.
Some 5 per cent say they will not get vaccinated, down from 12 per cent last October, the survey carried out for the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association found. The proportion who were unsure about being vaccinated dropped from 33 per cent to 4 per cent over the same period.
Among 18-34 year-olds, 7 per cent say they will not get vaccinated and 8 per cent are unsure.
