Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Medical chief: I apologise for disruptive steps
NORTHERN Ireland’s Chief Medical Officer has apologised to the public for the “pain, distress and anxiety” the coronavirus restrictions have caused.
Dr Michael Mcbride said “very significant progress” is being made in the fight against the disease thanks to the latest measures, but he recognises people are “fed up” with Covid-19.
Giving evidence to Stormont’s Health Committee on Thursday morning, Dr Mcbride said: “I can only apologise to everyone for the pain and the distress and anxiety that I know everyone is experiencing at this time, and hopefully into the New Year and into the spring things will look different to how they are at present.”
He added public health officials are trying to “balance both lives and livelihoods”, but he realises it is a particularly “difficult time” for those working in the hospitality sector.
Dr Mcbride said: “I know how distressing and anxious a time it has been for those working in many sectors, in hospitality, retail and close personal services.
“The difficulty with this virus is that it is highly transmissible and it spreads best when people are close together, and the more people that are close together, particularly indoors, the easier it is for the virus to spread.”
Public health officials are working to get the R number below one, and Dr Mcbride said if that happens fewer people will be infected and infection rates will fall.
He added: “The R number in June was somewhere between 0.5 and 0.7 and then over the course of time as we relaxed measures and allowed some sectors to open up, we had a situation where by October the R number had gotten to between 1.4 and 1.6.”
The chief medical officer added that measures put in place since then have been “effective”, in particular in the Derry City and Strabane area.
Health Minister Robin Swann told the committee he was “deeply concerned” about the increase in Covid cases over the last month and that the coming period is still “highly uncertain”.
He said: “We believe further waves are still a continuing threat.
“But there are, however, signs that the action that has been taken by the Executive is having an impact with the number of infections actually stabilising.”
Mr Swann added the health service has been under “severe pressure” in recent weeks and the critical care surge plan has been updated to provide the ability to incrementally flex capacity of ICU beds to 158 across the region.
I know how distressing a time it has been MICHAEL MCBRIDE STORMONT YESTERDAY