Taoiseach: Hotel quarantining for travellers without PCR test to be in place by mid-February
A Garda checkpoint at Dublin Airport: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
The Taoiseach has said hotel quarantining measure for travellers who don't have a PCR test and are coming from specific countries should be in place by the middle of this month.
Micheál Martin said the country was "in a race" to get people vaccinated as "the variants have changed the landscape in relation to the virus very significantly".
He added that there "will come a stage when we have a surplus of vaccines, all going well".
"This is an unprecedented crisis and the Government has responded in an unprecedented way," Mr Martin told , programme adding that the vaccination programme provides hope.
"We have vaccines now which we didn't have last year and they do offer hope for the country and people do need hope to get through this."
He said people with illnesses that compromise their immunity and non-frontline healthcare workers will be bumped up the list and will receive the AstraZeneca vaccine ahead of schedule.
Earlier this afternoon, gardaí were given enhanced powers to call to the homes of people to ensure they are quarantining after arriving from abroad.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly signed new regulations which will introduce a system of mandatory quarantine for arrivals into the State.
Under these regulations, passengers who arrive from any destination must quarantine for 14 days at the address specified on their Passenger Locator Form, with penalties for non-compliance.
A further 1,318 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed by Department of Health officials this evening, bringing the total number of cases seen in Ireland to 200,744.
75 further deaths from Covid-19 have been confirmed this evening by the Department of Health.
46 of the deaths occurred in February, 27 occurred in January, and the remaining two were from earlier reporting periods.
The median age of those who died is 84 years and the age range is 34-100 years.
The newest figures bring the total number of Covid-19-related deaths here to 3,586.
Speaking this evening, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said "a worrying pattern" of people with symptoms delaying making contact with their GP had emerged.
Dr Glynn urged people to act quickly if they noticed they had symptoms, and to “isolate and contact their GP immediately.”
The Deputy CMO said this was the only way to “prevent the spread of the virus and protect vulnerable loved ones.”
Echoing Dr Glynn's remarks Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, Professor Philip Nolan said the next few weeks would be "difficult for all of us."
He said that as daily case levels decreased below the 1,000 mark, progress would "seem to slow down."
However, Prof Nolan said it was now more important than ever to drive the case numbers back to the low levels seen in June and July of last year.
Prof Nolan said the virus reproduction or 'R' number was now in the region of 0.5 – 0.8, which was "good news."
“I noted last week that the testing of close contacts will impact on case numbers in the coming days," Prof Nolan said.
"We shouldn’t be disappointed by this, it shows that we have moved from the mitigation phase of the last few weeks, back to the containment phase where we are tracking down every possible chain of transmission."
- 622 are men;
- 688 are women;
- 58% are under 45 years of age;
- The median age is 40 years old;
- 428 are located in Dublin;
- 122 are in Cork;
- 93 are in Galway;
- 78 are in Kildare;
- 77 are in Limerick;
- and the remaining 520 cases are spread across all other counties.
As of 2pm today, 1,284 Covid-19 patients were hospitalised, of which 188 were in ICU.
74 additional hospitalisations have been reported in the past 24 hours
The national 14-day incidence rate of the virus here is now 397.1 per 100,000 population.
As regards vaccinations, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said that while those over the age of 70 have "suffered the greatest burden" in terms or mortality and serious illness, the country was now in the position to offer "effective and safe vaccines" to this cohort.
“The superior efficacy demonstrated by the mRNA vaccines authorised for use in Ireland, Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna mean that the mRNA vaccines are the right vaccine to provide the highest level of protection available to those over 70."
The CMO said that the vaccinations that will be seen over the coming weeks would give the country "great hope."
"However, even if you have received your Covid-19 vaccine, you must continue to wash your hands, wear a face covering, maintain a social distance and keep your close contacts to a minimum.
Until we have all been vaccinated, we must act as though none of us have been vaccinated.
Earlier, Paul Reid admitted that the HSE were now facing a significant challenge to re-focus the vaccine roll-out, but insisted that the over-70s programme will be on target.
Mr Reid insisted at a briefing today they are still aiming for the 480,000 over-70s to receive their vaccines by the end of March.
According to the latest figures, 219,200 vaccines have now been administered.
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