Health Chief: ‘We are still very much in the midst of this pandemic crisis’

Ireland will continue in the acute emergency phase of the Covid-19 crisis for "most probably years", with "further waves an ever-present danger," according to the Secretary General of the Department of Health.

Jim Breslin, who is due to appear alongside the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan, and HSE Chief Executive Officer, Paul Reid before the new Oireachtas Special Covid Committee on Tuesday, will tell TDs in his opening remarks, that: "This is not a 1, 2 or even a 3-day storm, after which we move to the recovery phase.

"The acute phase of this crisis will definitely be measured in months and most probably in years, rather than days" because "the virus is so new there is much that we still don’t know".

He will also tell the committee that Ireland's health service has been "tested to the limits but not overwhelmed" however "there is much more work to do, in particular in improving test turnaround times" and "the deaths we have experienced in our long-term care facilities are the most difficult aspect of our experience with Covid-19".

The 19-strong committee was formed to consider and take evidence on the State’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and will also hear from officials from the Construction Industry Federation, Health and Safety Authority and ICTU over three separate sessions.

The committee previously decided at a meeting last week that their main focus would be the capacity to test and trace, the ability to protect those in nursing homes, and reopening the economy.

The health officials are scheduled to appear at the first and second sessions to discuss their view on whether the state has the capacity to test and trace at an appropriate level to consider further lifting of lock down restrictions, and whether more could have been done to protect patients in residential settings.

Paul Reid's opening statement echoes Mr Breslin's comments, adding: "We are still dealing with the virus and its potential impacts and we will be contending with Covid-19 for some considerable time to come", before going on to detail the work that has been done to test in nursing homes, despite heavy criticism that the sector had been neglected at the beginning of the outbreak.

According to the statement, at the outset of the pandemic, the HSE's "greatest fear", based on the experience of Covid-19 internationally, "was that there would be unrestrained community transmission".

Mr Reid says the HSE has launched a mass testing programme for nursing homes and has now tested 42,380 individuals comprising staff and residents, and the number of outbreaks in such settings is falling.

Last week, 33 outbreaks were notified to the HSE, whereas in the previous week the figure as 42.

According to Mr Reid, the HSE are now in a position to conduct over 100,000 tests per week across swabbing, laboratory and contact tracing infrastructure (the “end-to-end” process), and testing capacity now exceeds the present demand.

The agency are also in "the final stages" of the development of a mobile app to aid the current contact tracing team of over 1,800 people, however the Chief Executive warned against complacency.

"It is really important that we all understand that we are still very much in the midst of this pandemic crisis," Mr Reid writes in his statement.

"We are not at the end of it by a long stretch. And we continue to manage this crisis across several fronts, not least of which is the enormous additional cost associated with this pandemic."