Concerning virus trends nationwide ‘in most areas’

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The Taoiseach Department undersecretary has said that several counties “now show worrying trends” regarding the number of coronavirus cases.

At a government press conference, Liz Canavan said that the counties “Louth, Waterford, Limerick, Kildare, Leitrim, Donegal and Offaly now show worrying trends.”

He said the concern existed not only in Dublin, but also nationally, with upward trends in all but six counties.

Yesterday, the interim medical director raised concerns about the level of Covid-19 in Louth, Donegal and Waterford counties.

Canavan said Co Louth has seen 120 cases in the last two weeks compared to 18 in the previous two weeks, while Donegal has seen 102 cases in the last fortnight, compared to 18 in the previous period.

Counties like Limerick, Waterford and Wicklow were also seeing significant increases, he said.

In Wicklow over the past few weeks, the numbers have “jumped” from 19 to 99.

“Outside of these counties,” he said, “there are worrying trends in most areas.”

“We are currently at Tier 2 of the national framework and we want to stay there or upgrade to Tier 1.

“We don’t want to go the other way.”

Canavan said that “the profile of the disease in Dublin is at an extremely critical juncture.”

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She said that based on the available model, if the current progress of the virus remains unchanged, the Department believes that there will be between 500-1,000 cases per day in a month, 50-60% would be in Dublin.

“When community transmission levels are high, any gathering can become an event that causes a broader infection,” he said.

Ms Canavan said the decision to move Dublin to Tier 3 had been made in an effort to protect our priorities, protect the most vulnerable, resume non-Covid health and social care, and maintain educational activities.

“We need to keep our people at work and businesses operating living with the pandemic,” he said.

The senior official also said that each level of the Government’s Living with Covid-19 plan has measures that aim to limit the places where people can gather.

He said this is “in response to an assessment that the risk is increasing.”

“There are priorities, there are options. There are really tough choices,” he said.

“They are not intended to suggest that some groups, companies or settings are to blame for the transmission.

“It’s just that some things by their nature create ideal conditions for the virus and some things are more important than others. So if we want to slow down the virus, we have to eliminate some of the situations where it will search for new hosts. It is so complicated and simple as that “.

He said we must work together to stop the spread of the virus, and advised people to limit the number of people they know.

Ms. Canavan recommended “keeping groups small and seeing them regularly, rather than meeting many different people from many different households.”

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Epidemiological Modeling Advisory Group of the National Public Health Emergency Team has said that the growing number of Covid-19 cases requires a calm response.

Professor Philip Nolan said that limiting contacts is a primary defense in the fight against the virus, and that the number of Covid-19 cases can be “controlled.”

Louth GP says growing number of cases is ‘concerning’

A GP in Co Louth has said that the increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in the county is concerning.

Dr. Amy Morgan, a GP at Bryanstown Medical Center in Drogheda, said they would see what the knock-on effect of that could be in the coming weeks.

He said they can see that the incidence is increasing and their main objective is to shield and protect the most vulnerable.

Dr. Morgan said that we know what to do and that has brought these numbers down before so it really is a matter of going back to basics and following public health advice.

Additional reporting: Helen Donohue



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