Schools should not be accelerated for reopening, warns Dr. Tony Holohan

The reopening of schools should not be accelerated, warned Ireland’s chief physician.

Dr. Tony Holohan was speaking after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar raised hopes of an early return to class.

Varadkar said the new studies showed that reopening schools would be one of the safest activities to start.

The Medical Director, who revealed that the recommendation to cover his face in schools has not been discussed, said he would not disagree with the Taoiseach, but that he could not see the classrooms returning before September at the earliest.

“I am not anticipating any changes regarding the schools and the advice that we will give regarding that,” he said.

“The evidence is based on a small number of studies with a small number of children. The world is not ready to conclude that transmission involving children does not occur. “

Today brought 10 more tragic deaths from Covid-19, the lowest daily number since March.

Some 1,497 people have died in this early phase of Ireland’s war with the virus.

On the 75th day of the outbreak, which started on February 29, 159 new cases were confirmed, bringing the total number of infected to 23,401.

The highest death toll was 58 lives lost on April 12. The figures reported so far show only one death on Tuesday this week.

But the National Public Health Emergency Team is satisfied with many of the key indicators of the disease.

There are 64 people with Covid-19 in intensive care beds today and Dr. Holohan confirmed that delays in response tests would not delay the decision to ease the restrictions.

NPHET will meet tomorrow and is expected to give the green light to begin unrolling the closure.

However, Dr. Holohan cautioned that this was not the time to start having “parties and barbecues.”

“We will continue to monitor that situation until Monday. If things continue on the track they are on, we would have hope, ”he said.

“If we find ourselves in a situation where we are recommending a reduction in restrictions from the beginning of next week, this will lead to an increase in the movement of people, not to a great extent if people continue to follow the advice.

“If people go beyond what we are recommending and start having barbecues and parties and visit each other’s houses in the way that we do not recommend, then that is the scenario that would concern us.”

He said that lessons will have to be learned on how to protect residential and nursing homes where nearly 1,000 people have died as restrictions ease.

“We are going to have to find a way to live with this virus for a considerable time,” said the CMO.

“How we will have to minimize the impact on nursing homes and vulnerable people in the community will stay with us.”

New figures also show a sharp increase in recovery rates, with 84 percent of those infected with the disease, ahead of the international average of around 80 percent.

Of the 23,089 cases studied, 19,470 had recovered, including 1,593 who had required hospital treatment.

More details emerged about the underlying medical conditions that make people more vulnerable to the virus.

Of those who died, 470 had heart problems, 191 respiratory diseases, 154 were diabetics, 149 had cancer, and 342 had neurological diseases.

The HSE will unveil its contact tracking plans tomorrow to track down those who have approached confirmed cases, a key weapon to control the virus when the blockade ends.

Dr. Holohan said tonight that a mobile phone app is not yet expected to play a major role in that process.

According to the latest figures, some 6,997 health workers have been infected with the disease.

According to the latest figures, there have been 941 deaths in residential care settings, including 818 in nursing homes.

In total, 5,957 patients in the sector have been infected with coronavirus.