Even more counties are facing lockdowns
LOCKDOWN of yet more counties is on the cards as the Cabinet meets today to discuss the recent coronavirus spike.
Meanwhile, DCU’s Professor Anthony Staines told the Irish Daily Mail that the Government would have to reconsider the reopening of schools if the number of Covid-19 cases reaches 200 a day.
In his opinion, the spread of the virus will explode if the daily cases were to even hit 100 and the schools were to reopen.
The Cabinet is also set to discuss restricting visitors to nursing homes and countries being added to the green list.
The top priority of the Government is the reopening of schools and that is likely to dictate restrictions in other areas.
It comes as the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) reported an additional 56 coronavirus cases.
There are now 27,313 confirmed cases in Ireland.
Twenty-six of the new cases are in Kildare, 13 in Dublin and the rest of the 17 cases are in Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Laois, Longford, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Westmeath and Wicklow.
Over the last four days, NPHET has confirmed a growing number of cases in Dublin, Tipperary and Limerick while Kildare – which is already in lockdown – continues to see high numbers.
Dublin had 103 cases since Friday while Limerick and Tipperary saw 27 collectively.
A senior Cabinet source told the Mail last night: ‘I know they [NPHET] are considering whether any of the measures in the three counties need to be extended elsewhere.
‘They are looking at putting extra measures in place to protect vulnerable people – people in nursing homes, homeless and direct provision.
‘They might restrict visitors. They cancelled their press conference tonight because they don’t want to be asked about it before it goes to the Cabinet.
‘I thought Ronan Glynn, in his interview on the Six One [news] last night, [went] out of his way to point out that other countries are now in a bad way as well. We’ll have to see the figures tonight.’
‘Their priority is making sure that they get the virus down so schools can safely reopen. [Micheál] Martin has been stating privately that it is the number one priority [opening schools] so it would be a huge hammer blow if they don’t.
‘I would imagine they may look at changing that tomorrow.’
Meanwhile, Professor at DCU and Public Health Expert, Anthony Staines, warns that the Government should take a proactive rather than reactive approach that would see us clear the virus out of the community and get back to as normal a life as possible.
He said: ‘If we stayed at 200 a day or even if we are over 100 a day, to be honest I think NPHET will be very reluctant to open the schools with that level of infection in the community. If we do open it, there is a big risk that it will just spread like wildfire through the schools.
‘We know that kids don’t die of this. We know they don’t get especially sick, but what we don’t know is do they get long-term effects from it. We know older people in the 20s and 30s, even with mild illness, can take a very long time to recover.’ ‘They end up with heart problems, disparity problems, neurological problems. Now, hopefully all of those will fade over a month and go away but nobody knows that yet. ‘We don’t know if that can happen to teenagers. We haven’t seen enough cases and I hope we don’t. ‘I don’t really want to find out by experimenting on Irish teenagers.’ Meanwhile, pop-up testing centres have been created in the three most affected counties – Kildare,
Laois and Offaly – including one at Keadeen Hotel in Newbridge, where a long queue of cars could be seen yesterday.
Early Childhood Ireland has raised concerns that delays in testing could have ‘serious implications’ for maintaining staff ratios for childminders.
Meanwhile, the owner of a Dublin city restaurant said that a video of people dancing wildly was ‘20 seconds of madness’.
Jay Bourke, owner of Berlin D2, said the footage, which also shows a barman standing on a bar and pouring alcohol into the mouths of revellers below, was ‘not reflective’ of the day as a whole.
However, Health Minister, Stephen Donnelly, said: ‘I think what we saw was a slap in the face for everyone who’s working so hard to suppress the virus.’