Taoiseach extremely concerned and cannot rule out further Covid restrictions

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said “nothing can be ruled out” in terms of Covid-19 restrictions and the Government is “extremely concerned” about the rising prevalence of the disease.

Speaking in Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, Mr Martin said the Government can “never rule out” taking additional measures given the impact that reopening has had on the case numbers.

He said the Cabinet’s Covid-19 subcommittee will meet on Monday evening to discuss a potential pause on the full return to work and to discuss the National Public Health Emergency Team’s latest modelling on the disease. At this meeting, Ministers will do a “stock take” ahead of a full Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Asked if he could rule out another lockdown, Mr Martin said: “We are in a different position to last year so the language of lockdowns has to be looked at differently.

“We are very highly vaccinated as a country, over 90 odd per cent [of adults]. That is important. We are in a different space to what we were last year,” he said.

“That said we are extremely concerned, very concerned, about the high rise in numbers and indeed the impact that is having on hospitalisation, admissions to intensive care units and illness, but vaccination is protecting.”

The Department of Health reported a further 3,805 Covid-19 cases on Sunday. As of 8am, there were 582 people in hospital with the virus (up 26 from Saturday), of which 106 were in intensive care units.

Mr Martin said the booster campaign was being rolled out and that was very important. “That will continue to expand and will give significant protection to key age groups and cohorts over the coming weeks.

Confirmed cases in hospital Confirmed cases in ICU 582 106

“Secondly, we are looking to expand testing and tracing in particular antigen testing. The Minister for Health will be bringing forward proposals in respect of a wider deployment of antigen testing and also making it that bit more affordable for people if we want to introduce a culture of greater utilisation by people of antigen tests,” Mr Martin said.

“Thirdly in terms of the recommendations from Nphet in respect of working from home, we will make decisions on that advice early this week. We will have a Covid meeting tomorrow evening where we will give consideration to that advice and have a general stock-take with Nphet and other Cabinet Ministers in terms of the situation in relation to Covid right now and over the coming weeks.”

Asked again about the possibility of further restrictions, he said: “Nothing can be ruled out in respect of Covid-19, we know that by now. That said, we are in a much different position to where we were last year because of vaccination and because we have the booster campaign.

“The evidence internationally is that the booster third dose is quite impactful, more impactful that the second dose, it is being said. Our data from the over-80s already is encouraging in that respect.

“We can having never rule out having to take measures.”

The Taoiseach said people needed to cut their levels of socialising.

In terms of antigen tests, he said the Government did not envisage making them available for free.

“We do want to encourage people to use antigen testing more frequently and we will look to make it more affordable,” he said.

On the recommendation from Nphet to return to a policy of working from home where possible, he said: “From September we advocated a phased return to the workplace. That is about 50 per cent now. That is one measure we have been asked to consider. It is important that we deliberate on that over a number of days.”

Mr Martin was also asked about further restrictions in the area of the night-time economy, as an example.

“Tomorrow evening the Covid Cabinet committee will be taking stock of that. We will be engaging with the chief medical officer and Nphet in terms of their modelling and how they see it. We haven’t set specific thresholds in respect of the amount of people in ICU.

“The earlier modelling suggested this could peak at the end of November, this wave. But there is a lot of uncertainty.”

The Taoiseach said that rather than getting into the specific issue of nightclubs the broader issue was the level of socialisation taking place.

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