Tighter home restrictions due to 'alarming' spike in Covid-19 cases

Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ronan Glynn : Tom Honan/PA Wire

The entire country is set for stricter household visitor restrictions as it emerged that 57 Covid-19 cases were linked to just one Cork restaurant.

A number of counties with high case numbers, like Cork, look set to escape, for now, joining Dublin and Donegal in being under Level 3 restrictions.

However, the National Public Health Emergency Team is recommending to the Government that, across the country, only six visitors from one other household should be allowed.

It is making the recommendation due to an “alarming” spike in Covid infections among 18-25-year-olds, described by one senior source as a "pinch point".

“That is the particular pressure point that needs to be squeezed, that the message needs to be got across to,” the source said.

It comes as another four deaths have been announced and 442 new cases of Covid-19 have been recorded bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Ireland to 36,597 with 1,806 Covid-19 related deaths. There were 170 new cases in Dublin, 47 in Cork, 28 in Donegal and the rest across every other county. 

There have been more than 4,500 cases of Covid-19 nationally over the last fortnight as the country continues to battle a second wave. The five day average for cases is now 412 and 18 counties have an increased incidence rate when compared with last week.

Acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ronan Glynn, revealed on last night's RTÉ news that one restaurant in Cork was the starting point of a cluster that has caused 57 covid cases so far.

"We have one cluster, for example, tonight in Cork, from a café restaurant where a number of people from different households socialised," he said.

"At the moment, that cluster is at 57 cases. We have to cut down the size of these clusters, we have to cut down socialisation if we are going to get on top of this disease."

The meeting did not recommend that any other counties join Dublin and Donegal on level three, despite much speculation beforehand that Cork, Roscommon, Monaghan, and Galway would do so.

NPHET has advised the Government to extend the Level 2 measures currently in place for a further period of three weeks. The new visiting restrictions ordinarily apply to counties operating at Level 3 of the Government’s roadmap for living with Covid only. Currently, in Level 2, visits can have up to three households in one residence.

The weekly HSE Covid briefing heard that while the capital, which is two weeks into its level three restrictions, is still seeing three times the infection rate of much of the rest of the country, evidence of “flattening” within the county’s numbers is beginning to be seen.

The HSE is to conduct research via the Health Protection Surveillance Centre of 500 community-transmitted cases of Covid-19 for seven days prior to their positive test in order to add “value” to the contact-tracing process.

Giving an update on testing and tracing, HSE chief executive Paul Reid said that more than 93,000 swab tests were performed last week, with just under 16,000 contact tracing calls made.

Of the positive cases notified last week, some 25% were aged between 15- 24, Mr Reid said, with 10% aged younger than 15, and 10% older than 65.

Local infection rates published on Thursday show that Covid-19 infection rates doubling in parts of Donegal, Cork, Roscommon and Monaghan between 15-28 September.

The latest Local Electoral Area (LEA) data show that infection rates have soared to a staggering 602.6 cases per 100,000 population in the Lifford/ Stranorlar area in Donegal, which continues to have the highest infection rate nationally.

In Cork infection rates have increased in 11 areas, quadrupling in the north west area of the city, trebling in the south central area of the city and Midleton, and doubling in the south west, south east and north east area of the city, Carrigaline, Cobh, Macroom, and Mallow and also increasing in Fermoy.