No discussions yet about reimposing restrictions, Donnelly says as 3,428 cases reported

There has been no discussion on reimposing restrictions and it is still too early to tell people whether they can or can't have Christmas parties says minister

Minister of Health Stephen Donnelly says action may be needed if businesses are lax in enforcing mask-wearing and other Covid guidelines. Photo: Conor McKeown

The Health Minister says that there should be "urgent sanctions" for businesses which don't comply with Covid rules.

Stephen Donnelly told RTÉ Radio's This Week programme that action may be needed if businesses do not check vaccine certs, enforce mask-wearing or adhere to distancing rules.

"We should be looking at more urgent sanctions for those businesses not doing the right thing," Mr Donnelly told the programme.

Mr Donnelly said that there has yet to be any discussion, however, of reimposing restrictions due to the increase in Covid cases. He said that it was still too early to tell people whether they can or can't have Christmas parties

"That conversation hasn’t been had by Government," he said.

Risk of transmission

However, Mr Donnelly said that people need to "pull back" from discretionary contacts over the coming weeks to cut out the risk of transmission of the virus.

Mr Donnelly also denied reports that there is a rift between the Cabinet and NPHET on the issue of booster vaccines. Sources in Government say that they are keen to get boosters to all over 40s this year, but have been frustrated by the pace of approval by NPHET.

I believe there is a strong role for boosters... but boosters alone are not going to solve this problem.

Mr Donnelly also said that he envisages antigen testing will be used in schools by Christmas. He added that the government is giving consideration to subsidised antigen testing for the general public.

Meanwhile, a further 3,428 cases of Covid-19 have today been confirmed while the number of patients currently in hospital with the virus has increased.

According to the Department of Health, as of 8am today, 478 Covid-19 patients are in hospital, which is an increase of 34 people when compared to yesterday’s figures.

Of those being treated in hospital for the virus today, 75 are in ICU.

On Saturday, there were 444 people being treated in hospital for the virus and of those, 74 were in ICU.