The easing of Covid-19 restrictions originally planned for October 22nd may be delayed, the government has hinted, after members of NPHET expressed concern over recent virus trends.
According to health officials, test positivity rates and hospitalisations have been trending upwards in the past few days.
Reportedly, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ronan Glynn, as well as NPHET modelling chief Philip Nolan, both told the Covid Oversight Group that they were concerned with the increases, which they say are being detected across all age cohorts.
They added that they were unsure if this was a minor anomaly or a more sustained trend, but that NPHET were afraid it could be the latter.
They urged caution about the planned relaxing of restrictions on the 22nd, though they added that NPHET would examine the data between now and then and come to a conclusion in the next week or so.
CMO Dr. Tony Holohan is due to return from leave from Monday next week, where he will chair the NPHET meeting to discuss the development.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said this morning that he couldn’t rule out an extension of the restrictions past October 22nd.
“The Delta wave did not turn out to be as severe as we feared, but we have never managed to really get the numbers down in Ireland,” he told Pat Kenny during a radio interview on Newstalk.
“The Delta wave swept across Europe but you see countries in central Europe that are now yellow and green zones and we are still in the red zone.”
He said that while he was eager to go ahead with the reopening, he couldn’t rule out keeping the restrictions.
Over 90% of those aged 12 and over in Ireland have had at least one vaccine dose, and 90% of adults are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
To date Ireland has 321 ICU beds, and around 73 patients with Covid-19 in ICU.