Donnelly warns of new lockdown after surge
THE country is at a ‘tipping point’ and could be facing another national Covid-19 lockdown, the Health Minister has warned.
Another 164 cases were confirmed yesterday, with 93 in Dublin alone, amid a worrying resurgence of the virus.
Stephen Donnelly also told the Oireachtas Covid Committee: ‘We have to take this deadly seriously.’ TDs also heard there will be ‘significant peaks’ of the virus soon.
HSE chief Paul Reid said tackling surges of Covid could be done locally as we learn to live with ‘peaks and troughs’ of the virus.
He said the HSE is working on a winter plan but that: ‘It is not just about a winter plan and what we would normally have to do.’
However, the president of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) said the bed shortage in hospitals would plunge them into crisis.
He called on the Government to urgently address a number of issues before the ‘unprecedented pressure’ the winter season will put on the health system.
Dr Pádraig McGarry added that the health service was ‘already unfit for purpose prior to the emergence of Covid-19’.
‘We are seeing lengthening waiting lists while our bed capacity and ability to schedule outpatient appointments has significantly reduced, due to infection control and social distancing guidelines,’ he added.
Minister Donnelly told the Oireachtas committee: ‘If we are dealing with a serious second wave in this country, healthcare services will, for a second time, be severely curtailed.
‘From now to at least Christmas our focus is on suppressing the virus to allow us to reopen society, reopen schools and colleges, reopen health services, protect jobs and protect those most vulnerable to this awful virus,’ he said.
‘Because we know more about the virus now, it has been possible to bring in localised measures where local cases grew, and where national measures are necessary to limit them to targeting the virus.
‘Because tens of thousands of tests are being done each week, it’s been possible to act quickly, to suppress the virus as it tries to move once again through our communities.
‘Last week we learned something very important – thanks to the efforts of the people of Kildare, Laois and Offaly – we know that localised measures can work and save lives.’
Responding to a question about sport, he told the committee: ‘The easiest thing in the world for NPHET to do would have been to say, “Just close down all sports”, we are at tipping point, we could be looking at another national lockdown.
‘We have to take this deadly seriously and it would have been quite reasonable for them to say “for the next three weeks in order to protect the country and lives we simply have to stop sports”. To their great credit, they didn’t do that.’
In the seven days from August 20 to yesterday, inclusive, 835 new Covid cases have been notified. There were 164 new cases yesterday, with 93 in Dublin, 22 in Kildare and ten in Tipperary.
A total of 80 were confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case and 21 have been identified as community transmission.
The number of cases in Ireland now stands at 28,363, while the number of deaths is still 1,777.
Acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn highlighted, in particular, rising cases in Dublin, Kildare, Tipperary, Limerick, Cork and Carlow over the last few days and urged people everywhere ‘to follow the public health advice and reduce mixing of households where at all possible’.
‘We are at a tipping point’