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Health authorities have urged people not to lower their guard, as the number of new Covid-19 cases has remained below 1,000 for the past seven days.
The Health Department announced two deaths and 552 new cases last night.
The daily number of new Covid-19 cases has been less than 1,000 every day since Sunday, October 25, when 1,025 cases were announced.
The last figure is a little more than half of that total.
The 14-day incidence rate of the disease has decreased, along with the positivity rate.
There has also been a drop in the number of close contacts reported for confirmed cases.
But the HSE has reiterated that it is too early to say that these positive signs are an ongoing trend and GPs have warned people not to let their guard down.
The Irish College of GPs Senior Advisor on Covid-19, Dr. Nuala O’Connor, emphasized that the best way to stop the spread of the virus was for people with symptoms to stay home.
Health authorities remain concerned that the virus could reappear as it did in Dublin shortly after Level 3 restrictions were introduced and are eager to prevent the same from happening across the country.
It is not yet clear what specific measures have led to the drop in cases.
It appears to be due to the introduction of the home visiting ban as well as Level 3 restrictions, along with the move of some border counties to Level 4.
It is also possible that NPHET’s advice to the government in early October that it was necessary to move to Level 5 had influenced people’s behavior, although it was not immediately acted upon.
The Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory said the suspension of testing this weekend due to personnel problems did not influence the lower number of cases.
Dr Cillian de Gascun said that there was enough capacity in the system to handle the 600-700 swabs that the NVRL would normally test over the weekend.
The number of people hospitalized yesterday with Covid-19 was 330, with 47 of those patients in the ICU.
The number of hospitalizations and admissions to the ICU continues to increase, but more slowly than in recent weeks.
The outlook is much bleaker in Europe. Ireland is one of only four European countries where the seven-day incidence rate has fallen in the last week for Ireland by 36%.
According to weekly figures from the WHO, only Malta, Belgium and Finland also saw a decrease in the seven-day incidence rate and the rate increased in the other 24 countries.
NPHET has warned that Ireland’s progress is fragile.
Some continued signs of encouragement this week. Reduction of cases, positivity rates and close contacts. But hospital cases and the ICU have yet to drop. So please keep our guard and stamina for the next few weeks as our aim is to avoid the trend in Europe and the UK. @HSELive # COVID-19
– Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) November 1, 2020
As schools reopened this morning after the midterm recess, HSE Executive Director Paul Reid reassured parents, teachers and principals that there is a low incidence rate in schools.
He said additional resources would be provided to schools this week that would improve the services and supports available to them in the coming weeks.
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