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The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) has reported three other deaths of Covid-19 patients. This brings the total number of deaths in the pandemic to 2,143.
Nphet also reported 484 confirmed cases of the disease, bringing the total number of cases in the Republic to 77,678.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that Nphet recommended to the government that the period of relaxed Covid-19 restrictions be shortened by the end of the year as virus cases rise.
“The planned period of going from tomorrow to January 6 would be shortened,” he told RTÉ’s Six One.
He said the recommended measures would mean that the hospitality sector and home visits are reduced from three to one.
Of the new cases, 150 are in Dublin, 45 in Wexford, 40 in Cork, 32 in Donegal, 29 in Limerick, and the remaining 188 cases are spread across 20 other counties.
The breeding number, a measure of how many people a case infects, now sits between 1.1 and 1.3, according to Professor Philip Nolan, chairman of Nphet’s epidemiological modeling advisory group.
If this continues, there could be between 700 and 1,200 cases a day by the second week of January, he said.
As of Thursday afternoon, there were 200 Covid-19 patients in the hospital, including 31 in the ICU. There were 30 additional hospitalizations in the last 24 hours.
Medical Director Dr. Tony Holohan said the five-day moving average is now 387 cases per day.
He said the virus was spreading across the country, in all age groups.
“We are now receiving reports of major outbreaks in social settings, including work settings, Christmas parties and funerals. I can’t stress enough how important it is to limit your interactions now. The consequences of not doing so will be an exponential growth in January, a substantial increase in hospitalizations and risk to life ”.
‘Precarious’
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly told the Dáil that the Covid-19 virus’s reproduction rate has increased to between 1.1 and 1.3 from 0.9 to 1 last week.
Donnelly, who described the situation as “precarious”, said that with a rate above 1.2 “cases can increase very, very quickly.”
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly. Photograph: Gareth Chaney / Collins
He said positivity in tests has risen and referrals for PCR testing have risen and that doctors are registering flu-like symptoms in their surgeries.
He warned that all leading indicators “point to a significant increase in cases and we have seen an increase in the number of personal contacts.”
The number of contacts per person who tests positive has increased from 2.8 recent to 3.6 today.
He said that “Ireland has done its best in the Western world as a nation and as a body politic by working together to reduce the virus and keep people alive.
The minister who was opening a debate in the Dáil about the Covid-19 working group, said that he had had a long conversation with the chief and the deputy medical director before the debate and that it was “very sobering.”
He said Ireland was in the unique position of seeing friends and family at Christmas and asked the public to act on the advice of Dr. Ronan Glynn to reduce the amount of contacts they planned to have during the holiday season.
Earlier, HSE chief Paul Reid urged people to protect themselves during the Christmas period, saying it would be the best gift they could give to Ireland’s health system.
Medical Director Tony Holohan said Wednesday there were “significant and worrying indicators that this disease is moving in the wrong direction.”
These include an increase in positivity rates, he said, and the 5-day moving average has now risen to 339 new daily cases, while the seven-day incidence rate is 48.7 per 100,000.
“These trends are even more worrisome due to the delicate and precarious situation in which we find ourselves; as a country, we are heading into a period of possible general mixing between households and intergenerational groups, ”he said.
On Wednesday it was announced that there had been 431 new cases of Covid-19 and six more deaths related to the coronavirus in the state.
On Thursday morning, Mr. Reid urged people to exercise caution during the Christmas period and keep their social contacts to a minimum.
“We want people to look forward to Christmas, it is important for their mental health,” he said.
But he added that he was concerned there would be “an explosive concoction” that would have a major impact after Christmas, which is the peak time of demand for health services.
Minimum contacts
The travel restriction outside of the county where he lives will be lifted Friday and Mr. Reid asked people to keep contacts and home visits to a minimum.
The restrictions had been eased with the aim of giving people “some relief,” but the public needed to continue to practice measures such as wearing masks, hand washing and social distancing, Reid told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
He said he was concerned about the lag effect. He did not want to have to reduce the easing of restrictions first. It was up to everyone to modify their behavior so that this didn’t have to happen.
He also said that the HSE would offer all the support it could to Northern Ireland and that they were monitoring the situation there closely.
Responding to a question about the possibility of closing schools this week until after Christmas after a series of outbreaks in schools, Reid said that keeping schools open is important for the well-being of children. Positivity rates in school were much lower than in the community, so they should remain open, he said.
The total number of Covid-19-related deaths in the state is now 2,140 and the total number of confirmed cases is 77,197.
The situation has also deteriorated in Northern Ireland, where patients were being treated in ambulance lines outside hospitals due to the lack of beds and the increased incidence of the virus.
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