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The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) reported a total of 922 new Covid-19 cases and eight coronavirus-related deaths on Thursday.
It brings to 83,073 the total cases of the infection and 2,192 the number of Covid-19-related deaths reported so far in 2020.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said the Republic of Ireland now has the fastest growing incidence rate in the European Union. “Unfortunately, none of the indicators of this disease show encouraging signs,” he said.
Of the 922 new cases reported Thursday, 438 were men and 477 women. The mean age of the positive cases was 33 years, with 68% of the cases younger than 45 years.
Some 337 cases, more than a third of the daily total, were located in Dublin. This was followed by 73 in Cork, 70 in Limerick, 56 in Wexford and 43 in Galway. The remaining 343 cases were spread across all other counties.
There were 255 Covid-19 patients in the hospital at 8 a.m. Thursday, with 37 admissions in the last 24 hours. Currently, twenty-two patients with Covid-19 are in intensive care.
“This Christmas, the best gift you can give to your loved ones is to strictly adhere to public health advice,” Dr. Holohan said.
Make your Christmas safe, meaningful, and memorable for the right reasons. Stay home, stay safe and be well. Limit contact as much as you can and make sure you and your loved ones have a safe and happy Christmas, ”he said.
During the previous six-week lockdown, Ireland had one of the lowest rates of the virus in the EU, but recent weeks have seen a sharp rise in cases, prompting the government to reintroduce Level 5 restrictions in recent days. .
The government appears willing to reject a request from public health officials to shut down non-essential retail on St. Stephen’s Day, as part of a move towards a Level 5 lockdown for six weeks in an attempt to control the “terrifying spread.” “from Covid-19 the state.
Government sources confirmed that the recommendation to close the retail trade had been made in a letter sent by Nphet after their meeting on Wednesday.
Foreign Minister Simon Coveney has said the cabinet would consider Nphet’s advice when it meets on December 29.
Non-essential retail
Data to date had shown that nonessential retail was not affecting the spread of the virus, Coveney said, but the cabinet would consider Nphet’s advice, he told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland.
Christmas shoppers are seen on Grafton Street in Dublin city center Photo: Gareth Chaney / Collins
Mr. Coveney continued to reject a suggestion that the decision to relax restrictions in early December had been a mistake.
He said that tests and data on the virus changed all the time and that the relaxation earlier in the month had been done in the context of Nphet’s advice.
According to the Level 5 plans published by the Government, a change to the full Level 5 restrictions recommended by Nphet would rule out visiting private homes or gardens as of Saturday, but this was to be the case a week later, on January 1 .
The government decided Tuesday to keep nonessential retail open after Christmas, although the traditional post-Christmas sales will not continue.
Under the new restrictions agreed by the Cabinet, the hospitality sector will close today at 3:00 p.m.
It comes as preliminary data showed the presence of the new variant of the UK coronavirus in the state, said Dr Cillian de Gascun of the National Virus Reference Laboratory.
Professor de Gascun said that the variant may be present in about 10 percent of the swabs tested, but that this needs further validation.
However, senior members of Nphet said late Wednesday that they did not believe the UK variant was substantially driving the infection here.
Dr. Holohan said that since the restrictions were changed in early December, “the level of social contact that has occurred, particularly around hospitality, has led to a very significant increase in the transmission of this infection.” .
Despite the presence of the UK variant, he said: “We don’t think it was a major part of the broadcast in this country – we’ve seen a significant amount of social participation that can explain this degree of really worrying numbers.”
Dr. de Gascun said the results suggest that the variant is likely concentrated in the east of the country.
“At the moment, it probably wouldn’t explain by itself the significant increase in the number of cases that we found,” he said. He estimated that the UK variant had been in the country since the second week of December at least, and may have been introduced at the end of November.
Dr. Holohan said that “all forms of discretionary socialization really have to stop if we are to have the opportunity to suppress this kind of level of transmission.” He said there was a “clear temporal association” between the opening of hospitality and a very significant increase in the spread of the disease.
‘Very fast acceleration’
Professor Nolan said that the relaxation on December 1 caused an increase in cases, but the relaxation of restrictions on hospitality “coincides with a very rapid acceleration in the level of disease.”
When asked why the data does not reflect outbreaks in hospitality settings, Dr. Ronan Glynn, deputy chief medical officer, said that of 7,000 cases in the past fortnight, the source of infection was unknown in 3,000 cases. At the briefing, it was heard that transmission cases that occurred in hospitality settings are likely sometimes recorded as managed in family homes, due to how contact tracing is done.
Dr. Holohan said, “Now we have a level of disease in the population that is simply not under control, we have to reestablish control of this infection, reduce the levels if we are to continue to ensure that we can maintain these essential public services.”
HSE Clinical Director Dr. Colm Henry said the past few days had seen “extraordinary growth in infection beyond what our extreme versions of models would have predicted.”
“We are deteriorating at a faster rate, in seven days, than any other country in Europe,” he said. The speed at which the virus was spreading had reached a “frightening level”.
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