'We cannot lessen our efforts' - Varadkar warns of Covid-19 peak later in the month

Additional reporting: Cianán Brennan

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said Ireland faces some of its “darkest days” in the coming weeks as coronavirus deaths continue to mount.

In a video posted on Twitter, Mr Varadkar said the country is preparing to reach the peak of the virus later this month.

“The number of hospitalisations and, sadly, the number of deaths continues to rise. So we cannot lose focus. We cannot lessen our efforts. In fact, we need to redouble them for the next few weeks,” he said.

“It’s more important than ever that we persevere. It’s possible that we haven’t seen the peak yet. When it comes, perhaps later this month, we will experience some of our darkest days. So we need to maintain our discipline and resolve in the knowledge that better days are to come.”

Mr Varadkar’s comments come as the coronavirus death toll here rose to 334 after a further 14 deaths were reported yesterday.

There are 9,655 confirmed cases in Ireland. The latest deaths were made up of six females and eight males, with a median age of 80.

The National Public Health Emergency Team reported 727 new cases of the virus yesterday.

These comprised of 430 cases reported by Irish laboratories and an additional 297 cases reported by a laboratory in Germany.

The weekend as a whole saw 47 deaths and 1,566 new cases of the virus.

Yesterday, Prof Philip Nolan, chairman of the Epidemiological Modelling Group advising the emergency team, said there is a “real danger” of another wave of virus cases if any changing of the restrictions on movement is not done correctly.

“As we look to modifying the restrictions, to let people get back to some more activities, there’s a real danger at that point if we don’t do it very, very carefully that we will get a second wave of disease and that, very quickly, if we get this wrong, that we will see a rapid re-emergence of the disease and arrive to a potentially very dangerous peak,” he told RTÉ.

However, he said that, at the moment, the country appears to be in a “very stable situation”.

On Friday, the Government extended its restrictions for another three weeks, until May 5.

Meanwhile, nursing homes “have yet to see the benefits” of commitments made regarding Covid-19 testing and the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE), according to the representative body for the sector.

Tadhg Daly, chief executive of Nursing Homes Ireland — which represents 390 of Ireland’s 440 such facilities — said some workers in nursing homes have been waiting for test results for 20 days, a pattern replicated across the country as the HSE struggles with a testing backlog of 14,500 people.

“We very much welcome the reprioritisation of healthcare workers, but to be blunt, we haven’t seen the benefits, and we know of people who could be working if they had their results,” he said.

On Saturday, Health Minister Simon Harris said he hoped the backlog in testing would be cleared by the end of this week.

He said between 25,000 and 30,000 tests had been sent to Germany, with more than half returned, and the remainder due back this week.

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