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Officials from the National Public Health Emergencies Team (NPHET) will attend Wednesday’s meeting of the Oireachtas special committee on Covid-19 along with Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.
Committee chair Michael McNamara had previously criticized NPHET officials’ decision not to attend the meeting.
However, in a change of mind on Tuesday. the Health Department said that the interim medical director, Dr. Ronan Glynn, Professor Philip Nolan and Dr. Cillian de Gascun will now attend the meeting.
NPHET on Tuesday reported another 363 Covid-19 cases, including 154 in Dublin.
One more death from the disease was confirmed, with a total now of 1,803.
Figures released Tuesday night show 35,740 cases of the disease have been recorded in the state, with the first confirmed seven months ago on February 29.
Of the latter cases, 154 cases are in Dublin, 40 in Cork, 23 in Donegal, 16 in Wexford, 15 in Roscommon, 14 in Galway, 14 in Monaghan, 11 in Kildare, 11 in Meath, 11 in Wicklow, nine in Limerick , six in Clare, five in May, five in Tipperary and the remaining 29 cases divided among nine counties. Women accounted for 191 of the infections and men 172.
The Director General of the Health Services Executive (HSE), Paul Reid, has expressed concern about attempts to categorize young and old with regard to Covid-19.
“I don’t think that works for Ireland. Proposals for a separate approach for seniors and youth will not work, ”he told Newstalk Breakfast on Wednesday.
Mr. Reid said he understood that people were looking for “an important new approach. We can still live our lives, just in a different way. “
There was a need to “report” behavior like that seen in Galway on Monday night, he added, noting that young people were also contracting the virus with 26 percent of cases in the last week at the age of 15 to 24 years. group.
Those people then went home and passed the virus on to their parents and grandparents with 75 percent of outbreaks at home, he said.
But it wasn’t just about the young people, it was about all the social engagements and how they were organized. The pandemic was a situation that people had no experience of, he added.
Ireland was doing “relatively” well compared to other European countries, Reid said, but said he was concerned about the level of hospitalizations, which made it even more important to report bad behavior.
It was necessary to encourage young people. “It’s about keeping people with us. Young people have made great sacrifices. When they connect with a big problem, they are our best ambassadors. “
Mr. Reid repeated the warning that “this will be a winter that we have never experienced before” and the goal of the health service would be to protect the public from the flu and Covid-19. “Our priority is to keep people out of the hospital.”
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