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There have been 254 more cases and three more confirmed deaths, according to the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET). Of these cases 136 are in Dublin.
“I am more concerned than at any time since the end of April,” the chairman of NPHET’s epidemiological modeling advisory group, Professor Philip Nolan, told a news conference on Wednesday.
He said the figures were “of considerable concern.” He said that the number of reproduction was 1.3 to 1.7 nationally and that the number of cases is likely to double every 10 to 14 days if people do not work to break the chains of transmission.
“If we don’t interrupt the transmission now, return the r number below 1, the model shows that we could have between 500 and 1000 cases per day by October 16, of which 50-60 percent would be in Dublin.” However, he said incidents were growing at about the same rate across the country.
Dr. Ronan Glynn, Acting Medical Director, said: “The current situation has deteriorated both in Dublin and nationally over the past week. Along with Dublin, we have seen particularly worrying trends in Louth, Waterford and Donegal. It is now absolutely essential that people follow public health advice and act as if they or their loved ones are potentially infectious. “
Of the cases reported today, 115 are men / 133 are women, 65% are under 45 years of age. She said 61 percent have been confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case, while 24 cases have been identified as community transmission.
Apart from Dublin, which accounted for more than half of the cases, there were 20 in Donegal, 13 in Louth, 12 in Wicklow, 9 in Waterford, 7 in Carlow, 7 in Cork, 6 in Galway, 5 in Kerry, 5 in Wexford and the rest There are 28 cases in Clare, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Longford, Mayo, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon and Westmeath.
Dr. Colm Henry, Clinical Director, HSE, said; “There are currently 73 Covid -19 patients in the hospital, 9 of them have been admitted in the last 24 hours. 14 of these patients are in the ICU. We are seeing a sharp increase in the rate of admissions for Covid-19 patients in our acute care hospitals. We know that without a reversal of these trends, admissions can rapidly escalate to the point where our healthcare facilities will be under unsustainable pressure. It is more essential than ever that we all comply with the basic measures that can weaken the virus in the community.
Dr Mary Favier, Covid-19 Advisor at the Irish College of General Practitioners, said: “While we have been conducting a lot of testing on children, thanks to parental vigilance around symptoms and contact with GPs with concerns, we have not witnessed a disproportionate increase in the number of confirmed cases in children. “
The figures are closely followed in the capital. Earlier on Wednesday, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said there is a “strong” and “very real” possibility that Dublin will move to level three in the government’s plans to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.
This would mean more severe restrictions for the capital, where there is concern about the further spread of the disease in recent weeks. The latest figures show that the incidence of the disease in the capital is roughly double the national average.
The figures prompted Dr. Glynn to warn the government last week that the capital had become a “reservoir of disease” that could put the entire state at risk.
In a letter last week, but published today, Dr. Glynn suggested that if left unchecked, cases could spike in the capital to 300 a day by the end of September.
In his advice to the government last week, Dr. Glynn said that Covid-19 infections in Dublin have the “potential to spread widely and rapidly both within Dublin and to other areas of the country.”
However, he stopped short of suggesting that Dublin should move to Level 3 of the Government’s five-tier Living with Covid-19 plan, as some Cabinet members have suggested. The county was placed in Level 2 yesterday but with some additional restrictions added.
He said this was because most of the cases in Dublin were concentrated in young people, meaning that hospitalization rates are low and deaths have stabilized.
Dublin remains at Level 2, along with the rest of the State, on the Government’s five-point Covid-19 scale, but additional restrictions have been announced and the expectation is that the county may move to Level 3 next week.
Donohoe said people who live in Dublin who are considering vacationing elsewhere in the state should reschedule and those in the county who plan to have or attend weddings outside of the capital should reconsider this.
His colleague, Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath, said there has been no instruction for the public not to visit Dublin, but that people should avoid doing so unless necessary.
Level 2 limits the number of visitors allowed in a home to six people from two or three other homes, up to 15 people can gather outdoors from up to three homes, outdoor sports training is allowed for up to 15 people (except for professional teams) and up to 100 people can watch sporting events outdoors and 50 people indoors.
Level 3 limits visitors to a home or garden to people from another household, travel is restricted to your county or region, except for work, educational or essential reasons, wedding attendance is reduced from 50 to 25, no they allow indoor gatherings (including reunions, theaters, cinemas, art venues), only individual indoor sports training is allowed, and visits to long-term residential care facilities, including nursing homes, are suspended.
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