--- title: Irish Prime Minister to Work As a Doctor During Country's COVID-19 Crisis description: Varadkar will assist in conducting phone assessments of people who may have been exposed to COVID-19. canonical: https://time.com/5816126/irish-prime-minister-doctor-covid-19/ author: Mélissa Godin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-04-06T14:59:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:52:13.207Z article:section: Health og:title: Irish Prime Minister to Work As a Doctor During Country's COVID-19 Crisis og:description: Varadkar will assist in conducting phone assessments of people who may have been exposed to COVID-19. og:url: https://time.com/5816126/irish-prime-minister-doctor-covid-19/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17eee17b2e16d153/698a0c7501168265be97f35a/Varadkar.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Congress Hosts Annual Friends Of Ireland Luncheon og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Irish Prime Minister to Work As a Doctor During Country's COVID-19 Crisis twitter:description: Varadkar will assist in conducting phone assessments of people who may have been exposed to COVID-19. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17eee17b2e16d153/698a0c7501168265be97f35a/Varadkar.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Irish Prime Minister to Work As a Doctor During Country's COVID-19 Crisis > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Will Coronavirus Ever Go Away? Here’s What One of World Health Organization's Top Experts Thinks [Watch (HLS stream): Will Coronavirus Ever Go Away? Here’s What One of World Health Organization's Top Experts Thinks](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fpC67JXM.m3u8) (2:40)  _Published 2020-03-23. Dr. Bruce Aylward was part of the WHO's team that went to China after the coronavirus outbreak there in January. He has urged all nations to use times bought during lockdowns to do more testing and respond aggressively._ by [Mélissa Godin](https://time.com/author/melissa-godin/) ## Mélissa Godin Apr 6, 2020 2:59 PM UTC  Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaks during the annual Friends of Ireland luncheon at the Rayburn Room of U.S. Capitol March 12, 2020 in Washington, DC. Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar speaks during the annual Friends of Ireland luncheon at the Rayburn Room of U.S. Capitol March 12, 2020 in Washington, DC. Getty—Alex Wong by [Mélissa Godin](https://time.com/author/melissa-godin/) ## Mélissa Godin Apr 6, 2020 2:59 PM UTC [Leo Varadkar](https://time.com/4856244/leo-varadkar-prime-minister-ireland/), the Irish Prime Minister, has rejoined the country’s medical register and will begin working one shift a week, as the country grapples with a growing COVID-19 outbreak. The Health Service Executive (HSE), the country’s health and social service provider, appealed to all non-working healthcare professionals on March 17 to “[be on call for Ireland](https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/news/newsfeatures/covid19-updates/oncall/),” amid a rising demand for health services. Professionals from all healthcare disciplines have been asked to register in case the government needs additional staff to work in either new or pre-existing medical facilities. Retired healthcare providers as well as medical students were also encouraged to sign up. Within three days of the HSE’s announcement, 50, 000 former healthcare professional registered, including Ireland’s leader. Varadkar will assist in conducting phone assessments of people who may have been exposed to COVID-19, joining his parents, sisters and partner who all work for health services. Varadkar worked as a junior doctor in Dublin for seven years before turning to politics. In 2013, he was taken off the medical register a year before he was appointed Ireland’s Minister for Health. Ireland has at least [4, 994 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 158 people](https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6) have died. The country has been under lockdown since March 28 and will remain so until April 19\. Citizens can only leave home for essential work, to buy necessary supplies, to exercise or care for the vulnerable. 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