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Delays in reducing the time it takes to test and trace contacts for new Covid-19 cases will not affect the decision to ease closure restrictions next Monday, the state’s chief medical officer said.
Technical problems have delayed the time it takes to evaluate infected people and trace their contacts, but Dr. Tony Holohan insisted that this would not be a factor in the decision of the State’s National Public Health Emergency Team to sanction the first wave of confinement relaxations.
“I am not anticipating that we will be in a situation where that performance is going to limit us in terms of easing the restriction,” the Health Department’s Covid-19 briefing said Wednesday.
The department announced that 10 more people died in the state from Covid-19, the lowest number of daily deaths since the end of March, and that there were 159 new cases of the virus.
These latest figures brought overall coronavirus-related deaths to 1,497, of which 55 percent, or 818 people, were nursing home residents. There are now 23,401 confirmed cases of the virus in the country.
The government has proposed allowing up to four people from outside the same household to meet outdoors starting Monday and the reopening of some retail outlets such as garden centers, but health officials will make a final decision on the penalty based on infection rates and hospital numbers.
Dr. Holohan noted continued improvement regarding testing and follow-up contacts in the coming days and that the “trajectory” of improvement will continue “until Monday.”
Childcare scheme
In a setback to the Government’s Covid-19 response, however, the Minister of Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone announced Wednesday night the scrapping of a plan to provide temporary child care to health workers, launched last week to provide home child care for front-line doctors, due to low acceptance by child care providers.
Only six providers signed up to be part of the service, and owners mentioned difficulties with insurance coverage and concerns about possible transmission of the virus for the low number.
The HSE will commit to a new plan to be released Thursday that the Covid-19 test results and follow-up contacts will be reversed within 72 hours, below an average response time of nine days that Health specialists say it is not fast enough to fight the pandemic.
Aimed at supporting the process of gradually easing constraints starting Monday, the plan will establish a series of key performance indicators, including the number of tests per week, the response time for results and the targets for monitoring contacts faster.
Reopening of schools
Dr. Holohan dismissed the possibility of schools reopening earlier than planned, downplaying the Taoiseach’s enthusiasm that this might happen sooner.
Leo Varadkar had said Wednesday that the reopening of children’s schools “in the next two months” was “one of the safest things” the state could do in light of the latest medical research.
Dr. Holohan said there were “a very small number of studies” on the subject involving “a small number of children”, but insufficient evidence to change the official advice on reopening schools.
The use of face covers in classrooms has not yet been considered when schools are due to reopen in September, he said.
Government sources suggested that Taoiseach’s intention had been to alert the education system that the schools would reopen in September and to combat claims that this might not be possible.
Sources suggested that schools could reopen earlier, about a week or so, to allow children with special needs to re-familiarize themselves with the school environment before the period begins, while teachers and staff could return to the initial phases to prepare for the school year.
Dr. Holohan said he still advises against nonessential travel in or out of the country, despite the EU pushing to reopen borders to revive travel in the June-August holiday season.
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