Rise in numbers in ICU as Government ponders delay to indoor reopening
Under the next phase of the government’s re-opening plan, indoor dining in pubs and restaurants was expected to return on July 5.
There have been a further 340 cases of Covid-19 confirmed this evening as an expert in infectious diseases warned a rise in cases and variants is “inevitable” as society reopens.
The Department of Health has also reported that the number of patients in hospital with Covid-19 has increased today to 47 - up from 43 yesterday.
The number of Covid patients in ICU is up two to 15.
Speaking to following reports the Government is considering delaying the next phase of the re-opening plan, Prof Paddy Mallon said there will “always” be a risk in re-opening indoor hospitality and a two-week delay will not stop an inevitable rise in cases.
A two-week delay would also not have a significant impact on younger people who are likely to still be unvaccinated in two to three weeks time, he said.
“Whether the 60 to 70 year olds are fully vaccinated or not, is probably not going to have a huge impact on the rise in the case numbers.
“It may have an impact on the result and hospitalizations if those individuals put themselves at risk in the intervening period while awaiting the second vaccine, but the rise in cases is largely going to be driven by those people that are unvaccinated as society opens up again and those people are the younger people in society.”
Under the next phase of the government’s re-opening plan, indoor dining in pubs and restaurants was expected to return on July 5. The numbers allowed to attend a wedding was also set to increase to 50 people while four households would be allowed gather indoors.
However, in the past few days government ministers began signalling that a delay to the plan may be in the pipeline due to concerns about the more transmissible Delta variant.
“We’ve been able to live with a transmissible variant since January,” Prof Mallon argued.
“Is two weeks really going to make a huge difference for us to move on to the next step, given where we are in terms of our vaccination rates, and the fact that our young people are going to be the cause of most of the new cases, and they are going to remain unvaccinated?”
“You can’t say ‘we’re going to wait two weeks’ as if two weeks is going to have a huge impact and everything is going to be okay,” he said.
“The two weeks is not going to stop the rise in cases or have a significant impact on younger unvaccinated people.”
At some point, we need to “test the waters," he said.
The Government will make an earlier than anticipated decision on the next step in reopening, the Taoiseach has confirmed.
However, Micheál Martin said reports that he is erring towards a delay in re-opening indoor hospitality are "not entirely accurate".
Speaking on RTÉ's the Week In Politics, he said that a decision could come by midweek, but said that he could not yet give specifics. He said that the "calculus and risk are different" now with regards to the spread of Covid-19 due to the Delta variant.
Mr Martin said that he is conscious of the fact that this year has been "devastating" for the hospitality industry and any delay beyond July 5 for indoor dining will make Ireland the only country in Europe to outlaw dining indoors.
He said he will meet the other party leaders in the coalition this evening and the Government will "make sensible decisions."
He said he has had engagements with Nphet over the weekend and confirmed a decision will be made early this week.
The chief executive of the HSE Paul Reid has said over 1.5m of the adult population (41%) are now fully vaccinated.
Up to Saturday evening, almost 310,000 vaccines have been administered this week, with almost 4m vaccines administered in total.
Up to last evening, almost 310,000 vaccines were administered so far this week. Now over 1.5M of the adult population (41%) are fully vaccinated & almost 4M vaccines administered in total. More and more people are being protected every day. Lots to be confident about. @HSELive
— Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) June 27, 2021
"More and more people are being protected every day. Lots to be confident about," he tweeted.
New data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) shows Ireland has the highest uptake of Covid-19 vaccination per capita of any EU/EEA country for people aged 50 and above.
The ECDC Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker also shows that 100% of people over the age of 80 have received at least one dose of a vaccine in Ireland.
In a video posted to Twitter today, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said the State's vaccination programme is "the envy of Europe."
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
