Harris says Govt will 'act swiftly' to end mask-wearing if Nphet recommends as 9,441 new cases confirmed
Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris said: "The national public health emergency team is meeting this morning and it's meeting against a positive trajectory and backdrop in relation to the Covid-19 situation." Photo: Brian Lawless/PA
The Government will "act swiftly" if Nphet recommends an end to mask-wearing in retail, transport and school settings, the Higher Education Minister says.
As Nphet discuss the future of mandatory mask-wearing, a total of 9,441 cases of Covid-19 were reported today.
Of these, 5,035 are PCR-confirmed cases while the remaining 4,406 are positive antigen tests recorded through the HSE portal.
As of 8am this morning, there are 639 Covid patients in hospitals across the country, 58 of whom are in intensive care.
Speaking in Dublin this morning, Simon Harris said that the Nphet advice was coming as Ireland was on a "good trajectory" in terms of dealing with Covid-19. However, Mr Harris said that he would not pre-empt the advice which would be given to Government this afternoon.
"I think what we should do is follow the public health advice. Obviously, the national public health emergency team is meeting this morning and it's meeting against a positive trajectory and backdrop in relation to the Covid-19 situation.
"We have seen the massive level of reopening of our country. Over the last number of weeks, we have seen people endeavour to return to normal in many ways.
"We've seen people be able to return to the workplace in certain scenarios, we've seen our education system continue to function, we've seen the hospitality sector reopened.
"And we've seen all of that happen against the positive backdrop in terms of case numbers, and in terms of the trajectory of the virus."
Mr Harris said that public health advice would guide whether regulations are extended, but said it was the "clear intention" of the Government to wind down restrictions.
"We will see what the national public health emergency team recommends later today, I expect they will communicate their advice to government around the issue later today.
"The government will act swiftly on that. I think we have shown in recent weeks, that when advice comes it gets acted on quickly."
He said that there was not necessarily going to be a Cabinet meeting tomorrow to discuss the advice and added that he did not have" any strong views" on standing down Nphet.
"I think there's going to be a requirement to continue to provide advice, expert advice, expert opinion in relation to Covid-19 and indeed, the continued trajectory and evolution of the band of the virus in the coming weeks, months and potentially longer.
"I think it is a statement of fact that it's likely to play a less active role. And what do I mean by that? I mean, we have Nphet, that was meeting several times a week on some occasions during the pandemic, that probably hasn't had a formal meeting in maybe in a month, I think, from my memory, maybe three weeks.
"So I think you're likely to see Nphet remain in place, but be as required, as opposed to having to meet on a very regular basis. But look, that's a matter for the Minister for Health during any proposals to go from interpretation."
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