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The government will announce on Friday an extension of Covid-19 restrictions on commercial and social life, but is expected to indicate that a partial lifting of the strict regime could occur next month if the infection rate continues to decline.
The restrictions will remain in effect for at least the next two weeks, and several major sources expect them to remain until the May holiday weekend.
The move is likely to be announced Friday afternoon after a meeting of senior public health officials. Health Minister Simon Harris is expected to sign an extension of Garda’s powers to enforce the blockade.
While the focus remains on maintaining restrictions in recent weeks to continue suppressing the virus, senior officials have begun working on plans for a “gradual” exit from the blockade.
However, the main sources emphasize that even when the restrictions are reduced, it will only be partial and gradual.
Priorities are expected to include reopening some retail, construction and school businesses, possibly only for part of the week initially.
On Thursday there was a strong presence of Garda on many routes, as Gardaí tried to impose restrictions. As the Easter holidays approach, travel across the border will be monitored by gardaí and PSNI officials to ensure people comply with coronavirus restrictions.
Gardai-trapped people who make unnecessary trips this weekend will have at least three opportunities to comply with the law before being arrested, according to a Garda management direction.
Before resorting to arrest, Gardaí must go through the four-step escalation process called “involve, explain, encourage, enforce,” Garda superintendents have been advised.
Under emergency law, anyone traveling for nonessential reasons or exercising more than 2 km from home will commit a crime.
Stepwise
Taoiseach Department deputy secretary general Liz Canavan said Thursday that work was underway to determine what the lifting of the restrictions would be like.
“I suppose at first we all might have thought it would happen all at once, but now we are more clear that it will happen in a much more gradual way.” So there is work in progress and there are a number of subgroups that analyze a variety of problems, “he said.
“The purpose of the group of senior officials and the cabinet committee is to chart our path through this so that it is constantly reviewed in relation to where we are now. So we published the action plan [and] we keep updating that. “
However, ministers and senior officials went out of their way to emphasize that any relaxation of the restrictions was weeks away and entirely dependent on uncertain factors, not just further reductions in the infection rate but a significant increase in testing and traceability.
It was announced Thursday night that 28 more people had died from the coronavirus, bringing the total number of deaths in the state to 263.
Fifteen of the patients who died were women and 13 men, with an average age of 84 years, according to the National Public Health Emergency Team. Nineteen of the patients had an underlying health condition. Some 22 of the deaths were located in the east, two in the northwest, two in the south and two in the west.
The number of confirmed cases in the State increased by 500, the largest increase in a single day to date and now stands at 6,574.
The analysis carried out by the Health Surveillance Protection Center (HSPC) of 6,444 cases as of Tuesday shows that the average age of known cases is 48 years.
Although the number of known cases increased significantly on Thursday, data compiled for the Department of Health shows that the growth rate is beginning to slow. While new cases were growing at a rate of 33% at the start of the outbreak, that has slowed to 9% this week.
Additionally, there has been a significant decrease in the infection rate – the number of infections caused by people infected with the virus.
At the start of the outbreak, each case was responsible for 4.5 infections; This had now been reduced to approximately one person, said Professor Philip Nolan, chair of the epidemiological modeling group of the National Public Health Emergency Team.
Medical Director Dr. Tony Holohan said he was “sensitive” to the uncertainty that Leaving Cert students face regarding state tests, and officials “will try to provide as much certainty as quickly as we can.”
Dr. Holohan added that traveling to the country from the UK and beyond was “very very limited” for returning Irish citizens and essential workers, such as transport drivers working in key supply chains.
More expensive
HSE’s chief clinical director, Dr. Colm Henry, said the health service’s position on the use of face masks had not changed, and only people recommended to wear masks should wear protective gear.
The latest HSPC figures show that two more people between the ages of 35 and 54 died earlier this week, bringing the number of coronavirus victims under the age of 55 to 12.
Among the confirmed daily deaths announced on Monday, April 6, was a person between the ages of 35 and 44 and a person between the ages of 45 and 54.
Of the total of 223 deaths reported Monday, 200 people were 65 or older; 11 were between 55 and 64 years old; seven were between 45 and 54 years old; three were between 35 and 44 years old; and two were between 25 and 34 years old.
Of 5,981 laboratory-confirmed cases of Covid-19, the 223 deaths yielded a mortality rate of 3.7 percent.
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