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The Government is concerned about trends in the spread of Covid-19 in Louth, Waterford, Limerick, Kildare, Leitrim, Donegal, Offaly and Wicklow counties.
In a Covid-19 briefing, Taoiseach Department Deputy Secretary General Liz Canavan said there are now “worrying trends in most areas.”
A second period of broad national restrictions would result in “intolerable challenges” and should be avoided, the government warned this morning.
Speaking after the first weekend of level three restrictions for Dublin, Canavan said that the new framework for living next to the coronavirus has set specific priorities including education, childcare, health and social care services.
“Many of these groups have suffered more and a second period of restrictions must be avoided or the challenges will accumulate in ways that would be intolerable.”
“After that, we want to protect as many companies as possible. We also want to protect and promote those things that are critical to our personal resilience. Access to sports, arts, physical activity and other activities that are part of who we are and how we keep ourselves mentally when times are tough.
Canavan said levels of the virus are increasing rapidly and community transmission is increasing.
Regarding the decision to place the entire County of Dublin at level three of the framework, he said the profile of the disease in Dublin is “at an extremely critical juncture”.
Options
“These choices are incredibly difficult to make. All the time is a balancing act. Public health would not recommend these measures and the Government would not implement them if they did not really believe that they are necessary now ”.
“We are currently at level two of the framework at the national level. We want to stay there or upgrade to level one. We don’t want to go to the other side. To keep all the businesses we care about open, we must work together to stop the spread of the virus. “
It is quite understandable that special attention has been paid to Dublin in the last few days.
However, most other counties are also seeing a growing number of cases of # COVID-19. Three in particular are already high and continuing to rise rapidly; 1 / n
– Dr. Ronan Glynn (@ronan_glynn) September 20, 2020
It is vital that people in all counties, but in these particular ones, do their best to break the chains of transmission over the next 7 days. We are not powerless to dictate the course of this disease;
1. Wash your hands regularly
2. Take a step back and keep your distance– Dr. Ronan Glynn (@ronan_glynn) September 20, 2020
The public has again been urged to limit social interactions, keep a distance, wear a mask and wash their hands while practicing good respiratory etiquette.
Canavan said that as a nation, Ireland is “tired” and said “there is no one who is not tired of everything.”
“Whether it is simply because you are scared and isolated because you are more vulnerable to illness, maybe you have lost a loved one, maybe you are working on the front lines where you see no end in sight. Maybe you’ve lost your job and have real money worries, or maybe you have a business that barely makes it from week to week. “
Climate Action Minister Eamon Ryan warned over the weekend that there was a “possibility” that other counties would have their Covid-19 status elevated to Level 3 along with Dublin.
While Dublin has the highest coronavirus incidents, Acting Medical Director Dr. Ronan Glynn tweeted Sunday night that most other counties were also experiencing an increase in coronavirus numbers.
In Louth, the 14-day incidence rate has increased to 102 per 100,000 of the population with 131 cases in the last fortnight; in Donegal, the incidence rate increased to 84 per 100,000 with 133 cases in the last fortnight and in Waterford it increased to 89 per 100,000 with 103 cases in the last fortnight.
“It is vital that people in all counties, but in these in particular, do all they can to break the chains of transmission for the next 7 days,” Dr. Glynn wrote in his tweet. He urged people to continue to wash their hands regularly, stay away from others, cover their faces, avoid crowds and assume that the people they come across may be infectious.
He also advised the public to plan to meet with “half as many people this week as last week.”
Limit contacts
Professor Philip Nolan, chair of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) epidemiological modeling advisory group, said Monday that while testing was important, the main defense against the spread of the virus was to limit contacts.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland program, Professor Nolan recognized that social contact was important to people’s health and well-being, but urged the public to “exercise personal discretion” about how often they participate in social activities.
“The subtle message is to cut your social contacts in half and if we do that Dublin can go down from level 3 to level 2 and other counties will be able to avoid the restrictions that were imposed in Dublin,” he said.
However, he cautioned that even if people “work very hard,” progress toward reducing transmission could be very slow. If the transmission rate stabilizes in 10 days “it will be a very good sign,” he said. “We have to continue like this to maintain the downward trend.”
Now is not the time for neglect even though the death rate from the virus for those over 65 has fallen from one in five in April to one in 20 today, Professor Nolan said. He assured listeners that there was no need to panic, but said it was important to remember that “this is still a deadly virus.”
Professor Nolan said it will take at least a week to see the results of the measures introduced in Dublin over the weekend.
Dublin’s incidence rate currently ranges from 187.3 in North West Dublin to 55.9 in South Dublin, according to the latest epidemiological report from the HSE Health Protection Surveillance Center (HPSC).
Despite the increase in cases, pubs outside of Dublin that do not serve food will be able to open today, for the first time since mid-March.
Another 396 cases were reported on Sunday, the highest daily figure since mid-May, with 274 reported on Saturday. The number of hospitalized patients has risen to 79 and those in the ICU to 16. No further deaths were reported.
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