HSE urges people to reduce contacts with an average of positive cases now by six

The HSE has again urged people to reduce their social contacts with an average of six positive case contacts.

At the launch of HSE’s winter plan this morning, CEO Paul Reid said the government’s € 600 million investment “is unprecedented,” but public support during the winter will also be vital.

“We need the public’s support to protect the health service this winter by continually protecting ourselves and following public health advice. Our goal, our ultimate goal, is to protect you, the public, but this year more than ever we need you to protect us as well. “

He said more than 11,000 contact tracing calls were made over the past seven days and the test positivity rate has now risen to 2.2%. The vast majority of people attend their swab appointments, he said.

About 91% attend the test on day 0 and almost 70% attend the test on day 7.

“The number of contacts is still an average of six, obviously there are still some outliers in that and significant outliers in that, I gave you a case before where it was 50, we are not seeing the massive outliers but there are still some” , He said.

HSE data shows that the average number of close contacts increased at certain times in July and August.

Source: HSE

These numbers have stabilized in recent weeks, but health officials continue to ask members of the public to reduce their social contacts as much as possible.

Last night, Dr. Ronan Glynn, acting chief medical officer, said that people should make decisions about their social activities and prioritize a small bubble of people to interact with.

He said that if everyone cut their contacts in half, it would have “a huge impact” on the spread of the virus.

“I have seen a speech that suggests that we must give power back to the people and let the people make decisions. That is what we are doing here. That is what we have been doing for weeks. We tell people that the disease is going in the wrong direction. And they need to hear that.

“And they need to make decisions individually. Go to your football game, but then don’t go to the pub, or go to the pub, but don’t go to the football game. Bring your kids to the playground, but don’t bring your kids to your neighbor’s house later on.

“These are choices that we all have to make, we cannot have everything we had eight months ago. This is not the time for house parties, it is not the time for great communions, it is not the time for great family gatherings.

“But more than that, on an individual level, choose a small network of people that you want your social contacts to be and stick with that bubble or with that group of people for the next few days and weeks.”