Essential that public abides by Covid-19 guidelines, says NPHET chair

Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group. Picture: Leah Farrell / Rollingnews.ie

Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the Nphet Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group has warned that it was essential for the public to continue to abide by Covid-19 public health guidelines.

Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland he said “unless we move quickly and firmly now to prevent further transmission from households into communities, we will see case numbers rising to a numbers that are unsustainable.” 

What had been seen in recent weeks was a slow but persistent rise of cases in the population from workplaces, to households, to the community.

“NPHET, the Government and the HSE recognise the test and trace system is under pressure but the Department is working on that,” he said. 

Prof Nolan said that the level of community transmission appeared to have doubled in the last seven days.

Unless we move quickly now together to prevent further transmission from households into communities, we will see case numbers rising to a level that is unsustainable.

It was a case that the public were not being as careful as they had been earlier in the pandemic. It was not a case of them being complacent, he said. 

People had “relaxed a little” and the concern was that the virus was “like fire in a tinder box”. 

NPHET had been clear with the public about the types of transmission that were occurring, he said.

It was difficult to monitor the level of community transmission and every case had to be investigated. With hundreds of cases identified in the last seven days that meant a significant number of cases remained under investigation, he explained.

Prof Nolan said that the core message remained the same – the public should avoid congregating, should practice hand hygiene and observe social distancing rules. 

We are at this critical juncture.

On the issue of restrictions he said that NPHET makes recommendations and the Government makes decisions. Avoiding situations where people were congregated was important, it was a question of risk analysis. 

There had to be a trade off because the greater the number of people gathered, the greater the risk of transmission, he said.

There had to be a cut off level for maintaining a level of human contact, but not at the risk of transmission of the virus, he said.