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Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath has said that no decisions will be made regarding increased restrictions in Dublin at this morning’s cabinet meeting.
McGrath said that the government has not received any advice at this time from NPHET to take additional action in Dublin to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Speaking on his way to Cabinet this morning, Mr. McGrath said it is timely to remind everyone to ask what else we can do to “clearly, the numbers are going in the wrong direction.
McGrath said that while no one wants more measures imposed anywhere, there are worrying trends in some counties.
But he said the government was not considering additional measures today.
Mr. McGrath said that if there were “flagrant breaches” of the regulations, the government would consider increasing the powers of the gardaí. He said the law must be enforced to protect the vulnerable.
“If necessary, that is what we will do. We will examine what else might need to be done to ensure that there are adequate powers and resources for the gardaí to protect the communities.”
The minister said that three weeks after the Budget, many issues were being considered in that context, including income support and support for businesses and the economy.
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Meanwhile, Minister Eamon Ryan has said that he expects coronavirus cases to begin to stabilize and Dublin can return to Level 2 of Covid-19 restrictions.
Also speaking ahead of this morning’s cabinet meeting at Dublin Castle, the Green Party leader said he was more concerned about other counties outside the capital.
‘What happened at Kildare, Laois and Offaly worked. When they put tighter restrictions, the numbers went down, counties were able to break out of that level. I hope it can be the same here and in the rest of the country. ‘
Ryan said that all decisions made last week would be reviewed by the Cabinet this morning.
He said it was not always clear where the virus was coming from and that community transmission was occurring outside of Dublin.
The minister urged people to cut their social contacts in half in the coming weeks.
Asked if Dublin could face more # COVID-19 restrictions, leader of the Green Party @EamonRyan he says he hopes the numbers stabilize and Dublin can return to Level 2. He adds that “the biggest concern is other counties outside of Dublin.” He says the measurements at Kildare, Laois, and Offaly worked. pic.twitter.com/pQZFNw2Udn
– RTÉ News (@rtenews) September 22, 2020
It comes when the Executive Director of the Health Service, Paul Reid, has described the increase in hospitalizations for Covid-19 as a very worrying trend.
In a tweet, Reid said there were 90 people being treated for the coronavirus at the hospital, of which 19 patients were in intensive care units.
He said this compares with the figures of 23 hospitalizations and eight cases in the ICU from just four weeks ago, describing it as “very worrying.”
His comments come as the acting medical director appealed to people to encourage their family and friends to follow public health guidelines.
Dr Ronan Glynn spoke after concerns were raised about the rise in coronavirus cases in eight counties outside of Dublin.
No new Covid-19-related deaths were reported yesterday, but an additional 188 cases were announced.
Dublin accounted for 40% of the new cases.
However, the concerns of health officials are not focused only on the capital. Worrisome trends are currently being monitored in Louth, Offaly, Kildare, Wicklow, Waterford, Limerick, Leitrim and Donegal.
The HSE has said that the important thing is that, on any given day, there are enough ICU beds for care. He also said that the number of ICU beds can vary from day to day, as staff can be sent to other wards.
Yesterday’s figures showed there were 280 open and staffed adult intensive care beds in the system, for Covid-19 and non-Covid care.
There were also 30 open and staffed children’s ICU beds.
The system had 45 adult ICUs and eight pediatric beds available for care.
As of mid-April, the hospital system had 415 open and staffed ICU beds.
Additional beds are expected to be provided in the ICU in the new HSE winter plan to be released this week.
Meanwhile, Dr John Bates, Dean of Ireland’s Joint College of Intensive Care Medicine and Consultant in Intensive Care at Galway University Hospital, has said there is a fear that there is an increase in deaths not caused by Covid due to difficulty for patients to access care. while coronavirus cases remain a priority.
Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Dr. Bates said that a significant increase in Covid-19 will also significantly affect non-Covid work, such as elective surgery.
Dr. Bates said waiting lists have already increased “quite substantially” in recent months and this should be factored into the winter plan.
From an intensive care perspective, he said, they are seeing a small but steady increase in patients requiring ICU care and this trend has continued since the beginning of the month.
Dr. Bates said the numbers are still small, but doctors are concerned about what will happen during the winter months, as other cases of flu and other illnesses increase.
He said the augmentation capacity, implemented in March and April, had a significant impact on the care of non-Covid patients and it would be preferable if the base capacity in the ICU did not require reassignment of staff from other areas this winter.
Additional information Fergal O’Brien
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