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Ireland is beginning to clamp down on the spread of the coronavirus, government public health advisers said last night, after the latest figures confirmed a downward trend in infections.
While the National Public Health Emergency Team cautioned against complacency, it confirmed that the tide appears to have turned after months of growth in the spread of the virus.
“This is the first time in three months that I can report positive indications that we are beginning to suppress transmission of the virus,” Professor Philip Nolan said at a press conference at the Health Department.
“When we achieve this type of suppression, the important thing is that it lasts,” he said.
Deceased
The Health Department reported 772 new cases of the disease and six deaths on Friday. Currently, there have been a total of 61,059 cases of the disease diagnosed in the state and 1,908 deaths related to the virus.
The Northern Department of Health recorded nine more deaths and 566 new cases.
Several important government figures pointed out that the stabilization and reduction in the number of daily cases is due to restrictions, including a ban on home visits, introduced before the closure. Professor Nolan confirmed this view, saying that the reversal that is currently being seen in virus growth was due to the introduction of a ban on home mixing, rather than the Level 3 restrictions that were in place beforehand, or Level 5 restrictions introduced on October 21.
The effect of Level 5 will not be reflected in the number of cases that are diagnosed over a week or so, he said. Once those measures are reflected in the case numbers, “we will have a much clearer picture of whether we are on track to get to where we need to be at the end of the six-week period.”
Weekly public opinion research conducted for the Department of Health also shows that there has been a sharp change in public attitudes in the last fortnight. Two weeks ago, almost half (49 percent) of all adults said they believed that the worst of the crisis was still ahead, but since then there has been a sharp decline in this pessimistic view, and now just over a third (34 percent) hold this opinion.
Public optimism
At the same time, the number of people who believe that the worst of the virus “is happening now” has increased from 35% to 43%. The number of those who say the worst is behind them has increased in the same period from 8 to 12 percent.
Several other indicators from the research also suggest increasing levels of optimism among the public.
The focus is now within the government on how it should manage the exit from the shutdown, scheduled for early December. Although a minister privately suggested that the decrease in the number of cases could mean an earlier end to the restrictions, several high-level sources rejected this idea.
However, ministers and public health officials are likely to struggle in the coming weeks with planning an exit strategy that will prevent a sudden resurgence in virus numbers, the officials said.
While Taoiseach Micheál Martin declined to give travel advice this week, three high-level sources said yesterday that they believe quarantine requirements for international travelers are highly unlikely to be lifted over the Christmas period. A source said that while no decisions had been made, the travel advice was expected to be “do not fly to Ireland.”
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