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Another 142 cases of coronavirus were reported in the state on Saturday, as one of the country’s leading public health experts warned that a second national lockdown could not be ruled out if there was an increase in Covid-19.
Dr. Cillian de Gascun, chair of the advisory group to the National Public Health Expert Team (NPHET), said that the reintroduction of stay-at-home restrictions would be avoided “if possible” but have been shown to work to suppress the spread of the virus.
A warning from Health Minister Stephen Donnelly followed Wednesday that the country was close to a second national lockdown because the state was at “a tipping point.”
NPHET reported another 142 coronavirus cases and no more deaths on Saturday.
This is the seventh day in a row that no additional coronavirus-related deaths have been reported.
This brings the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases to 28,720, with 1,777 deaths from the virus to date.
Of the 142 new cases reported on Saturday, 74 are men and 66 are women, with 69% of the cases under 45 years of age.
Some 32 of the cases are linked to an outbreak or were close contacts of a previous confirmed case, and 19 of the cases arose through community transmission.
Fifty-nine of the cases were in Dublin, 20 in Kildare, which remains under a local lockdown, and 14 cases were in Donegal and Limerick. There were eight confirmed cases in Wexford and six in Tipperary.
The remaining 21 cases were distributed in Carlow, Clare, Cork, Kerry, Kilkenny, Laois, Louth, Mayo, Meath and Wicklow counties. Over the past two weeks, cases have been confirmed in every county in the country, except Leitrim.
In a statement, Acting Medical Director Dr. Ronan Glynn said Saturday “marks six months since our first case of Covid-19. It has been a very difficult time for many and few have been affected in any way by the negative effects of this pandemic ”.
Dr. Glynn said during that time “our frontline workers have stepped up time and time again. But the basis of all this has been that each person has played their part by making the right decisions, many times, every day. Together, we have broken the drive chains and flattened the curve, ”he said.
“As cases increase again, it is these same behaviors that will once again make a difference, protecting ourselves, our families and our communities,” he said.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio One’s Brendan O’Connor program on Saturday, Dr. de Gascun acknowledged that the country was in a “critical phase” as the Government waited to see the impact over the next week of additional national restrictions on the gathering of people imposed last week. .
“It’s really important that people continue with the improved measures and the improved public health guidelines,” said Dr. de Gascun, who is also director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory.
However, he said the reintroduction of a national blockade could not be ruled out. “It is a tool in the armory that you never definitively exclude.”
Dr de Gascun acknowledged that a lockdown, while effective in controlling the virus, had a very significant impact on the Irish economy and people’s mental health.
He said that NPHET was well aware that the last planned phase of reopening the economy, which included pubs, had not been able to go ahead due to Covid-19 levels in the community.
Dr de Gascun said the way people went to bars in the past was one of the highest risk environments for the virus to spread, but that there could be measures the industry could put in place to reopen safely.
Greater Garda powers
On Friday, the government agreed to grant gardaí greater enforcement powers against pubs that do not comply with Covid-19 public health guidelines.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said a 16 million euro package will be made available for pubs that were banned from reopening next week.
Justice Minister Helen McEntee said on Friday that enforcement powers for pubs and restaurants would be improved after an increase over the summer in the number of outlets without complaints.
He said that with the sanction of a superintendent, a Gardaí can order the closure of a pub for one day, and if this is not yet fulfilled seven days, and then 30 days.
Varadkar said he couldn’t say for sure if the pubs would reopen this year.
The government is studying new regulations that would force workers in food and beverage venues to wear masks.
The Cabinet also agreed to ask the Attorney General to examine options to further regulate house parties. Under the proposals discussed by the Cabinet on Friday afternoon, it will be a crime to organize or attend a meeting in a private home with more than six visitors, either indoors or outdoors. This measure was introduced as a guideline last week.
Ireland’s incidence of cases exceeds Sweden
Meanwhile, the incidence of Covid-19 cases in the Republic has exceeded the level in Sweden for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Updated figures released by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) on Saturday show that the infection rate in Ireland over the past 14 days is 32.3 per 100,000 compared to 28.9 per 100,000 in Sweden.
Health authorities have focused on the Swedish figures, as the country took a gentler approach to fighting the virus, although it has experienced comparatively higher infection and mortality rates than neighboring countries such as Norway and Finland.
The highest current contagion rate occurs in Spain, where 205.5 cases per 100,000 have been registered during the last fortnight, with the highest concentrations in the northern part of the country.
Other countries with high rates of infection today are Romania, Malta, Croatia and France.
To date, almost 2.17 million Covid-19 cases have been reported in EU / EEA countries and the UK.
Spain has the highest number of cases with 439,286, followed by the United Kingdom (331,644), France (267,077) and Italy (265,409).
Ireland ranks 12th in the highest number of cases, although it is only the 22nd most populous country among the 30 European countries whose figures are compiled by the ECDC.
Ireland also has the 12th highest number of Covid-19 related deaths at 1,777.
The total number of deaths in the EU / EEA and the UK has reached 181,531 with the highest individual number in the UK at 41,486.
Italy has the second highest number of deaths with 35,472, followed by France (30,596), Spain (29,011) and Belgium (9,886).
Ireland still on the first wave
When asked where Ireland was in the course of the pandemic, Dr de Gascun said he thought the state had disrupted the first wave by introducing stay-at-home restrictions and “the fantastic effort of everyone in the country” .
While it was difficult to know exactly from a virology perspective, he said he believed Ireland was still in the first wave as there had been no significant change to the virus.
Dr. de Gascun said it was “disappointing but not very surprising” that the summer weather did not have a great effect on the virus.
“So we really have to count on people’s behavior to control it for the next several months until we have an effective treatment or hopefully an effective vaccine next year,” he added.
He praised the public for taking the public health message so well and for “continuing to do the right thing most of the time.”
Although a second significant increase in Covid-19 could be expected in the winter season, Dr. de Gascun expressed confidence that the continued use of physical distancing, hand hygiene and the use of masks would have an impact on all respiratory viruses, including influenza, for the next several months.
He noted that Australia had already experienced a very mild flu season due to all the public health measures that had been put in place to combat Covid-19.
“I think it’s important that we reassure people, to some extent, that we can control this,” he added.
Dr. de Gascun said that there was not a big difference between a zero Covid policy (the elimination of the virus instead of its suppression) and the one that the Government is following.
“Ultimately, you want to suppress the virus as much as possible in the community, while at the same time allowing people to return to school and work and protect our vulnerable,” he said.
As Ireland was an open economy that was affected by stay-at-home restrictions, Dr de Gascun said the goal was to reopen society as much as possible.
However, he emphasized that people must be aware that aspects of daily life must be performed differently and that such a change requires a change in behavior that can last several years.
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