Health chiefs warn of 'unpredictable nature' of virus as case numbers drop in Cork

Dr Tony Holohan urged people to keep social distancing. File picture: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos

There have been eight more deaths related to Covid-19, according to the latest statistics from the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet). 

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre was on Friday notified of 330 confirmed cases of Covid-19.

Of the cases, 99 are in Dublin, 28 in Cork, 26 in Louth, 25 in Meath, 21 in Donegal, and the remaining 131 cases are spread across 20 other counties.

As of 2pm on Friday, 283 Covid-19 patients were in hospital. Of these, 33 were in intensive care.

The latest figures show that while there are 152 fewer new cases compared with figures for Friday, November 13, there are 25 more people being treated in hospital.

Also, men make up most of Friday’s new cases, ahead of women for the first time in seven days. Throughout the past week, more women than men made up the new cases.

The average age is also up, from 35 to 37 years.

There is some good news for Cork in that the number of new cases has dropped from 45 on November 13 to 28 on Friday.

As the Government wrestles with what to do about reopening the country, the latest figures show what health chiefs warned last week was the “unpredictable nature” of the deadly virus.

While chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan commended people for their efforts in stopping the spread of the deadly virus, he again urged people to keep social distancing and take other precautions.

This was so, he said, we can “get to where we need to be on December 1”.

However, there is growing frustration over the relatively static nature of the country’s Covid-19 stats, despite the six-week level 5 lockdown imposed.

Figures are nowhere near where they should be — which is, dramatically down — and now the very merits of lockdown are being looked at.

Several Cabinet sources told the Irish Examiner the desire to allow all sectors of society reopen in December remains, including wet pubs.

They expressed their concern at the “multiplicity” of medical voices in the public domain, saying it is the Government and not Nphet who will decide what happens.

For its part, after its weekly meeting, Nphet decided that it is not ready to recommend any easing to restrictions on international travel into Ireland, despite it moving to orange on the EU traffic light system.

Dr Holohan's warning that "nothing has changed in the behaviour of the disease" has led to some worry among TDs about the short window left until Christmas. 

"It's getting to the stage where people want to know yes or no on Christmas," one minister was quoted as saying on Friday.