Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
PLEASE DO NOT GIVE UP
» Stick to rules ‘like your lives depend on it’ » Visits cut at hospitals in bid to curb spread
THE Chief Medical Officer has urged people to stick with social distancing for six months “like their lives depend on it”.
As the country’s rate of Covid-19 infection surges, Dr Michael Mcbride said: “I ask you not to give up.”
In a bid to stop the spread, Stormont has reintroduced measures seen earlier in the pandemic with restrictions on visiting other homes.
Modelling experts fear Northern Ireland could face 600 new infections a day within a month without action.
And health chiefs say the next two weeks will be critical in deciding whether they need to go further.
Dr Mcbride added the course of the virus is in people’s hands and how they act as winter approaches. He said:
“Your life, and potentially the lives of others close to you, does depend on it.”
He revealed the number of hospital admissions is increasing by 50% a week.
Chief scientific adviser Prof Ian Young said the number of diagnoses is predicted to double every 10 days in a major onslaught on the Health Service if nothing is done.
The warnings follow the introduction of measures aimed at reducing mixing in private homes which experts blame for much of the rise in community transmission.
And yesterday Health
Minister Robin Swann confirmed that hospital visits are to be restricted to one family member for one patient, once a week.
He said there will be new guidance issued around exemptions and added he is keen to maintain visits to care homes, potentially in other forms. Mr Swann said: “I do not want another lockdown, at the same time we have to keep all options on the table. The best way to avoid further restrictions on our lives is to follow the ones we have in place now.”
Health Trusts and care homes will implement more localised and tighter restrictions in the event of outbreaks.
Mr Swann added he fully recognises how “difficult and upsetting it is for people in
care homes and hospitals not to see their loved ones”.
He said: “The new guidance seeks to take a balanced approach – recognising the growing Covid-19 threat and the importance of family contacts.
“I don’t want to see doors being fully closed to visiting at this time – providing there is no outbreak in the facility.
“Please strictly follow all the public health guidance when visiting. Do not visit if you are feeling unwell yourself and make sure you wash your hands thoroughly before and after.”
The visiting guidance will be kept under ongoing review.
Dr Paul Johnston, an intensive care doctor at Antrim Area Hospital, revealed some medical staff in areas like intensive care had sought psychological support for the episodes they have witnessed while caring for patients. He said: “Prevention seems better than a cure that does not currently exist.”
Economy Minister Diane Dodds equally warned that businesses were also in a “perilous” state.
She added: “The Northern Ireland economy cannot afford another lockdown. Those small shoots of recovery we are seeing would be destroyed.”
The dire warnings came as the chief scientific adviser said up to 600 people a day could contract Covid-19 in Northern Ireland if the brakes are not applied to its spread.
His warning came six months to the day the UK went into lockdown.
Prof Young said a “circuit-breaker” lockdown of up to three weeks may interrupt the virus’s spread but admitted it is not likely to happen soon. He told the Nolan Show : “We are sitting at 150 cases a day at the moment. In four weeks I would expect us to be, if nothing was done, I would expect us to be at at least 500 to 600 cases a day.
“Even one death is a death too many and we know that there would certainly be deaths.”
He was speaking after one school in Co Tyrone closed yesterday morning, leaving 1,550 pupils to return home.
Holy Cross College i n Strabane announced it was shutting its gates due to Covid-19 infections.
Two were confirmed on Sunday and two more yesterday. A deep cl ean of th e secondary school for was undertaken. Malone Integrated College in Belfast reported a positive case among the teaching staff.
Close contacts have been notified and the school will reopen tomorrow. Principal Katrina Moore said: “As a result of our stringent protocol in place for tracking and tracing, we have been able to minimise the impact on staff and pupils.”
The school had closed on a precautionary basis. A detailed risk assessment in conjunction with the Public Health Agency was carried out.
The principal said the closure enabled her to protect the entire school community.