POSITIVE soundings from Government and NPHET’s daily briefings proved a welcome shot in the arm this week after a year of rolling uncertainty for us all.

An upbeat positive assessment on the rapidly falling Covid-19 national case numbers from NPHET on Thursday set the tone for Taoiseach’s Micheál Martin’s later appearance that night on The Tonight Show, hosted by Matt Cooper.

Asides from praising the national collective effort, the Taoiseach made no bones over plans to open up the country from May onwards. Urging people to stick with the restrictions until the end of April to keep driving the case numbers downward, he shook off Cooper’s suggestions that the reopening approach could be regionalised, firmly saying it would be national.

The areas the Taoiseach mentioned for May included non-essential retail, full construction, non-contact sports and religious services. With Pfizer going to supply an additional 500,000 vaccines to Ireland, it’s expected that some 80% of the population will have their first jabs by June.

With the now famous ‘R’ number hoovering well below the desired ‘1’ figure, the HSE also launched its online portal registration for the vaccines – another move in the overall right direction.

Equestrian scene on track

Meanwhile, on the Irish equestrian scene this week, we saw welcome announcements of new and additional sponsorship in show jumping with more sponsorships in the offing for the eventing world which will apparently be finalised next week.

Next week will also see sales and international eventing action return. Cavan Equestrian will hold its first sale of 2021 (see sales preview page 96), while Ballindenisk International also starts mid-week (see preview page 103).

When our Government is ready to give ‘the off’, the Irish equestrian scene is more than ready to go.