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The Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that the National Public Health Emergency Team can advise the government on localized restrictions in cities such as Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway, where the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise.
Speaking this afternoon in Cork, Micheál Martin said that NPHET is “very concerned” about the spread of the virus in these cities.
He said he was told by Acting Medical Director Dr. Ronan Glynn that the number of cases in Cork was “increasing in a straight line.”
He said he was signaling to people now that these cities are danger areas and that steps must be taken to control the spread of the virus there.
Martin said curbing the spread of the virus remains in the hands of the people.
Regarding the situation in County Donegal, Martin said he had spoken over the past 24 hours with both the prime minister and the deputy prime minister in the north, urging them to harmonize public health measures on both sides of the border both as possible.
Dr Glynn and his Northern Ireland counterpart Dr Michael McBride will issue a joint statement this afternoon after discussions on efforts to reduce travel between Co Donegal and Northern Ireland.
Dr. Glynn will discuss increasing Covid-19 incidence rates in Co Donegal with Dr. McBride, as well as reducing travel between the two jurisdictions.
Level 3 restrictions aimed at controlling the spread of the virus will go into effect for all of Donegal from midnight tonight.
The county now has the highest rate of Covid-19 in the country, with the Stranorlar / Lifford constituency recording an incidence rate of 336 cases per 100,000 of the population.
Forty-two of the 324 new Covid-19 cases reported to the Health Department yesterday were in Donegal.
Derry and Strabane have the highest rates of the virus in Northern Ireland.
Under Level 3 restrictions, people in Donegal are asked not to leave the county.
Last night, Mr. Martin spoke with the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers of Northern Ireland about the need for a policy to reduce travel between the two jurisdictions, except for work, education or other exempt reasons.
Dr. Glynn has said that the virus does not care about borders and that it is not surprising that there are similarly high levels in these areas.
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Donegal is the second county in the country to be placed under Level 3 restrictions under the Government’s Living with Covid-19 Plan, which was released last week.
Last week, Dublin received level 3 restrictions for a period of three weeks.
The restrictions in Donegal will be different than in Dublin in one area.
Pubs that do not serve food may remain open, but may only serve a maximum of 15 people and must be seated outdoors.
There will be a grace period for weddings in Donegal and they can continue as planned this weekend, but as of Monday the number of attendees will be limited to 25.
More young people are being hospitalized due to Covid-19
More young people are being hospitalized due to Covid-19 and there is greater transmission of the virus among those 65 and older than HSE has observed in the last week.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne, Health Service Executive Director Paul Reid said that people have to change everything about how they meet people and how they socialize, as virus rates continue to grow.
Reid said the contact tracing and testing system in Donegal has been overwhelmed by the volume of cases, which must be controlled now.
Mr. Reid said there is a contact tracing and information transfer between the Republic and Northern Ireland that does occur.
Reid said that “we can adjust and adapt our lives” and keep society open.
He said that he is not in favor of the closures, since the health service continues to suffer from the accumulation of patients waiting for attention and an increase in people who present anxiety, stress and illness.
Mr Reid said that a third of infections in Co Donegal are among those under 25 and the “relentless” experience is that transmission rates among young people are high.
He said that when higher transmission rates are seen in younger people, community transmission rates increase and more people over the age of 65 contract the virus.
Reid said the pandemic has given the HSE the opportunity to implement and accelerate change and new ways of providing services and better care for the Irish population.
He said that the amount of work done in the last six months in response to the coronavirus in conjunction with the Winter Plan will see a shift in care and pressure from hospital services to treat the elderly at home and provide diagnoses to doctors in family in the community.
All of this will ultimately lead to people being treated in a much better way and with more dignity, he said.
Mr. Reid said that four million flu vaccines for adults and 600,000 flu vaccines for children will be available for administration this winter.
He said the first vaccines arrived in March and the flu vaccines will be delivered in two-week batches for the next six weeks.
Fianna Fáil TD ‘I’m not sure county-wide restrictions are the best course of action’
Fianna Fail’s TD James Lawless has said he is “not sure that countywide restrictions are always the best course of action.”
Kildare North TD said it would advocate for restrictions based on electoral areas, if there is significant variation in case numbers with the particular county as a whole.
Speaking about the same program, Congressman Lawless welcomed the publication of Covid-19 cases by electoral area.
He added that the public must be fully informed of the reasoning behind decisions on restrictions, in order to fully adhere to them.
Brid Smith, People before Profit TD for Dublin South Central, has called the pandemic unemployment pay cuts “outrageous” and does not indicate that “we are all in this together.”
He said the impact is severe. “If you have 50 euros and you have food to put on the table, it is a great blow.”
Speaking about the same program, he said the payment scheme “targets the underbelly of Irish society” and exposes weaknesses.
Additional reports Vincent Kearney
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