Professor Philip Nolan provides an update on the cases the country should reach after six weeks of level five lockdown

A top NPHET physician has said the country could see fewer than 100 cases per day if public health measures are followed.

Professor Philip Nolan, chair of NPHET’s Irish Epidemiological Modeling Advisory Group, said the country needs to reduce the number of the virus reproducing as Level Five restrictions went into effect this week.

Professor Nolan said that the current breeding number nationwide is between 1.3 and 1.4 and insisted that the country’s goal should be to reduce the number of viruses to a more manageable level.

And the chief doctor said Ireland could see just fewer than 100 cases a day in six weeks if Tier Five restrictions are met.

Professor Nolan said: “The reproduction number is 1.3-1.4 nationally. Our collective goal now is to suppress the transmission of the virus and bring our number of cases to manageable levels.

“If we work hard together to get the breeding number to 0.5, we should be able to reduce cases to less than 100 per day in six weeks.”

His comments came after another 1,066 cases were confirmed Thursday, while three other deaths were sadly announced.

Speaking about the numbers, said Medical Director Dr. Tony Holohan; “We are now at Level 5 because the disease is at very serious levels in our country and represents a significant risk to public health.

“We all need to stay home, except for essential jobs and exceptional circumstances. If you are a confirmed case isolating yourself at home, if you are a close contact of a confirmed case, restrict your movements at home, if you experience symptoms or believe you are a close contact, restrict your movements and contact your GP “.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said counties could face closure for Christmas if Covid-19 cases continue to spread rapidly after six weeks.

When asked what the government will do if cases do not drop significantly by December 1, Stephen Donnelly said the exit strategy from the second blockade could happen region by region.

He said: “We have an exit strategy, we are going for six weeks.

“It depends on what the situation is, the government and NPHET will look at it carefully and look at a variety of factors.

“They look at the level of cases, the growth rate of the cases, the positivity rates, the R number and they also look at a county by county and a region by region.

“So one of the things we’ve said is that the output from this doesn’t have to be, for example, the whole country at once.

“It could be region by region.