No restrictions planned despite 'true' Covid-19 case numbers of more than 4,000

Health officials repeated the advice to observe public health guidelines to quell the resurgence of Covid-19 — but there is no plan to enforce further restrictions. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA

The true number of Covid cases is now over 4,000 a day but Nphet is not minded to reimpose restrictions, the Tánaiste has said.

Leo Varadkar told a meeting of the Fine Gael parliamentary party a backlog in cases is keeping the announced figures down, but the true figure is now over 4,000.  He said that reimposing restrictions, while not being ruled out, is not on the agenda.

His comments come as deaths linked to the virus are now trending at 150 per month, and amid warnings Covid-19 has been given too many opportunities to spread. 

Rising case numbers

Chief medical officer Tony Holohan said the country "simply can't sustain" the rising case numbers and increased hospitalisations. 

A further 74 Covid-linked deaths were notified in the last week, bringing the total to 5,566.

Yesterday, 2,975 more cases were confirmed though Nphet said a technical issue meant there was an "artificially low number of notifications". There were 551 Covid-19 patients in hospital, with 89 in intensive care.

Dr Holohan blamed current levels of socialisation for the spread of the virus.

"The reality is the opportunity that's been given to the virus by the levels of socialisation to transmit from person to person are simply too many," he said. 

"We're still seeing high levels of socialisation right across the population."

Dr Cillian De Gascun, Dr Ronan Glynn, and Dr Tony Holohan at the Department of Health Covid-19 media briefing. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

He urged people to halve the number of social contacts they make in the weeks ahead, saying people attending tonight's sell-out Ireland v Portugal soccer match in the Aviva Stadium should minimise contacts before and after the game. 

"We understand that the message is a difficult one for people to both hear and to adhere to in the way in which they live lives. We've all become tired of the pandemic and we understand why that is," Dr Holohan said:

We still see quite a substantial amount of adherence to basic public health measures across the population. But we know that it's just not quite at the level that we need.

Ireland is currently the eighth-worst affected country in the EU for Covid case numbers. Despite high levels of transmission, Dr Holohan said there are no plans to reintroduce strict lockdowns. 

"Nobody is ruling out things like that anywhere but, at the same time, no one has an expectation that we're going to go back into that kind of environment."