‘Some measures’ to remain for year
Caution prevails for NPHET and Tánaiste over future lifting of restrictions
SOME public health measures will still be in place by the end of the year, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn has predicted.
The NPHET expert’s guarded outlook on the battle that lies ahead against Covid comes on top of the Tánaiste’s cautious approach to reopening the country in the coming months.
Leo Varadkar wrote to the Fine Gael parliamentary party to say if cases of Covid-19 continue to fall and if there is reduced pressure on hospitals, then some changes will be considered from April 5.
However, these are relatively minor relaxations, including: an easing of the 5km rule, a reopening of construction, the return of clickand-collect at non-essential shops, and more outdoor activity.
However, he added that no further consideration would happen until the end of April or early May.
While public health doctors hope 80% of the population will have had at least one dose of the Covid19 vaccine by the end of June, Dr Glynn envisages some precautions to hamper the spread of Covid continuing after that point.
‘Huge burden is coming to an end’
‘I think there will be some element of public health measures still in place but I would hope that will be an environment which is far closer to what we have understood as normal in 2019 than what we are living in today,’ he explained.
Last night’s NPHET briefing was told that it will likely be another five or six weeks before the daily Covid-19 cases fall below 200.
Early last month, NPHET had been predicting that the country could have between 200 and 400 cases a day by March 1.
However, the daily case tallies are around the 600 and 700 mark currently. Indeed, a further 687 Covid cases were reported yesterday. There was one additional death of a person infected with the virus.
Mr Varadkar, meanwhile, said the number of vaccines administered each week will rise to between 200,000 to 300,000 in April.
And he said the Government’s mandatory hotel quarantine plan for arrivals from high-risk countries will be in place within weeks.
Health chiefs told last night’s health briefing slowing progress against the disease has forced them to revise earlier estimates.
Speaking yesterday, chair of the NPHET’s epidemiological modelling advisory group, Professor Philip Nolan said that the ‘huge burden of the disease is coming to an end’, and that ‘the impact on the hospitals is coming to an end’.
As of 8am yesterday, there were 540 Covid-19 patients in hospital, of which 120 were in ICUs.
Dr Glynn said there had been no new admissions to ICUs in the previous 24 hours, which is the first time that has happened since St Stephen’s Day.
He added: ‘This is one more tangible signal of the efforts that people continue to make and how those efforts are impacting positively on the trajectory of Covid19 in Ireland. Please stick with this over the coming weeks.’ Dr Glynn said the positivity rate among those tested was falling and the numbers were coming down. ‘We are not where we want to be or where we need to be but we continue to go in the right direction,’ he added.
Meanwhile, speaking to his party, Mr Varadkar said he took on board ‘reasoned criticisms about communications’ and added that now was the time for a ‘reset in how we communicate to the public’. It followed a private Fine Gael meeting last week where many TDs and senators levelled critiques of the Government’s confused Covid-19 communication strategy to date.
Mr Varadkar also warned that there was ‘no reason’ for any TDs or senators to be ‘off message’.
‘It’s very clear about what [will] and will not happen in the next ten weeks,’ he said.
‘Communications is a job for all of us and with this plan there is no reason for any of us to be “off message” for the next few months.’
‘NPHET has advised and we agreed that any further relaxation of restrictions at the same time would be too risky and could jeopardise the safe reopening of education,’ the email read.
On the vaccine front, as of February 26, there were 426,070 doses of Covid-19 administered in Ireland which included 285,780 first doses and 140,290 second doses.
‘Communications is a job for all of us’