Nphet: Not yet the time to consider reopening schools

Deputy chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said his concerns are not directly for the school environment, but to do with 'mobility levels in the population.' Picture: Larry Cummins

It is not yet time to consider reopening schools and encouraging movement, Nphet warned even as they cautiously welcomed decreasing case numbers.

New modelling data shows that, while the daily case numbers dipped below 1,000 for the third time this week, the 14-day rate of infection is still four times what it was in early December, and about 100 times what it was in July.

Although the reopening of schools remains a priority, deputy chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn sounded a note of caution.

Asked why the caution, he said: “because we still have more people in hospital than at any point last year, still more people in critical care … We are still seeing a level of disease transmission in the community that is far too high for a million people to go back.”

 

Dr Glynn's concerns are not directly for the school environment, he said:

It is to do with mobility levels in the population as a whole, so we need to see continued improvement over the next while at least.” 

Decreases in case numbers and hospital numbers were welcomed by members of the National Public Health Emergency Team.

However, chair of the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, Professor Philip Nolan, said the rate of decline appears to be slowing. 

He noted that, while numbers of Covid-19 hospital patients are also below 1,000 again, this is still 2.5 times the October peak.

Looking forward, he said if the reproduction-number stays low, Ireland is on track to have between 200 and 400 daily cases by the end of the month.

There is a 50% reduction in mobility rates linked to workplaces compared to a normal week.

Vaccine priority list under review

The priority sequence list for vaccinations is constantly under review, as more research is done on the vaccines, said chair of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee, Professor Karina Butler.  

However, she would not be drawn on when a new list would be issued or how different it might be to the current lists.

NIAC are not changing the recommendation older people get the mRNA vaccines in preference to AstraZeneca vaccine, despite a World Health Organisation statement on Thursday saying it is safe for all ages.

She said: “It was welcome to see the report but there was nothing in it that was substantially different than the European Medicines Agency. Our advice is as it was.” 

The UK variant remains dominant in Ireland, with just 11 cases of the South African variant and none of the Brazilian variant, according to Dr Lorraine Doherty, National Clinical Director Health Protection HSE. – Health Protection Surveillance Centre HPSC.

Positivity rate continues to fall

Nphet announced 52 further deaths and 866 new cases of Covid-19 this evening.

This brings the deaths to 3,846 and the total number of cases to 206,801. Thirty-three of the deaths happened this month, and 12 in January.

The swabbing positivity rate of up to 8% this afternoon compared well to 18.05% on January 11, although Prof Nolan noted this is reducing more slowly than last week.

The 14-day rate of infection per 100,000 is now at 299.6, down again on the day before.

Waterford remains in the top three worst-affected counties with an infection rate of 391.6, despite significant improvements and among nine counties with a higher rate than the national rate.