The benefits of reopening the economy outweigh the risk of a COVID-19 resurgence, according to infectious disease expert Professor Sam McConkey.

Restaurants and pubs that serve food are due to reopen their doors next Monday as the new-look Phase Three of reopening gets underway.

Customers will be limited to 105 minutes of seating time, with tables spaced out to allow for social distancing.

On Lunchtime Live this afternoon, Professor Sam McConkey, Head of the Department of International Health and Tropical Medicine at the RCSI, said the coming weeks will be all about reopening the economy while minimising the risk of a virus resurgence.

“Keeping the Irish economy with the minimum amount of damage possible from the COVID-19 outbreak is a really important priority,” he said.

“That is because, if we are all poorer, we will be unhealthy and if some of us are poorer, we won’t have the social unity or the social equity that allows us all to work together – five million of us – to buy into this control programme.

“So, my view is, we need to look after each other and we need to keep the industries, as much as possible, up and running.”

183,000 cases were reported around the world yesterday, prompting fears of a second wave in parts of Asia, but also in Europe where Germany saw a rise in the reproductive rate of the virus.

Professor McConkey said Ireland can prevent that happening by being as responsible as possible about reopening.

“The way to prevent that is by businesses planning safe opening and by getting rapid access to testing,” he said.

“If Irish people continue to cooperate and follow the words of Tony Holohan the way we did for the last three months, then I think we will be OK.

“If we go off and do our own cowboy things, each one of us, then we probably won’t.”

Indoor gatherings of up to 50 people will also be allowed from next week and Professor McConkey said some of those could pose a greater risk than pub gatherings.

“Can you imagine 49 people coming into my house or your house all with a bit of alcohol, a lot of social intimacy, a fair bit of physical intimacy, a lot of noise, a lot of singing – that breaks all the rules.

“Forty-nine is sort of allowed at that stage indoors but it is a really a bad idea and that is where people need to think hard about whether a house party is [a good idea].

“Pubs are organised places; there are owners there are staff and you need to fulfil staff requirements for social distancing.”