More options at Christmas if Covid cases keep falling, says HSE's chief clinical officer

HSE Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry. Picture: Leah Farrell / Photocall Ireland

The HSE's chief clinical officer, Dr Colm Henry is hopeful that if Covid cases continue to decrease there will be more options to allow people come together at Christmas.

“Based on the trends we're seeing now, if they're kept up and we keep transmission right down, the number of new cases right down. When you look at the whole spectrum of experience across Europe we're almost best in class in terms of reversing the trends,” he told Newstalk Breakfast.

“I'm really hoping we'll be in a position to go back, that we'll have options, that we'll have a range of options that will allow for people coming together. The better we perform now, the better options we'll have in December.” 

Dr Henry said he was optimistic and that the reasons for his optimism were that Ireland had managed to turn the tide for a second time at a time when the situation in mainland Europe was very frightening.

“We turned the tide again in this country due to the collective efforts of each and every individual up and down the country - from Malin Head down to Wexford. We're one of the few countries in Europe with a falling rate - that famous 14-day incidence rate is now half what it was in October.

“We're keeping our hospitals safe, our emergency departments, and all other hospital services are open for business, if you need urgent or emergency care they are there for you.” 

Dr Henry acknowledged that it was “extraordinarily difficult” for people to have to decide not to come home for Christmas. 

“The idea of the loss of Christmas makes our collective hearts sink, there's no doubt about that. The situation is completely volatile at the moment - it's important to look at that.

“There's so much uncertainty, so much volatility, so it's hard to give people a direct message, to say it's ok, things will be fine by Christmas it will be safe to come home. 

“The place that you're living now is safe and we'll have a low level of Covid in the week running up to Christmas when you plan to come home. We simply can't say that.

“We don't want to run the risk of reintroducing Covid because of a lax approach.” 

Dr Henry said he wanted to see the country push through the gains made during the first weeks of Level 5. 

“We want to get cases down to 50 per day so we can have more options in December than we had a couple of weeks ago.

“We're on track to be in a position where we will have many more options.” 

On December 1, Nphet will make a recommendation based on public health and the Government will make a decision based on broader interests, based on employment and the economy, he said.