Public officials to meet today – they’re deeply concerned by the rate of Covid transmission

Christmas can be saved if the right measures are taken, according to public health officials.

NPHET is warning that cases of Covid-19 could exceed 1,000 a day in a matter of weeks and says we are now in a period of exponential growth.

611 cases were confirmed yesterday, along with five deaths. To date there have been 787 positive results in Carlow & Kilkenny.

Public health officials will meet again today and say they are deeply concerned by the rate of transmission since they last met on Sunday.

Chairman of the NPHET Modelling Advisory Group, Philip Nolan, outlines the prediction he made just three weeks ago saying “At that time we said that if reproduction number was 1.4 that by the 7th of October we would see 590 cases, we report 611, I don’t take any pleasure in the fact that that model has proven to be an accurate prediction, quite the opposite, it’s a source of major concern that the disease continues to grow”.

It comes as the Chief Medical Officer says he spoke to the Health Minister both before and after NPHET met on Sunday.

Public health officials were criticised for their recommendation to move the country to level five, a measure that was described as coming “out of the blue”.

The CMO says he and the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar have cleared the air after he said the recommendation had not been thought through and caught Government by surprise.

However, Dr Tony Holohan says he spoke to Minister Stephen Donnelly before NPHET met at 12pm.

Nursing Homes …

There are five nursing homes across the country with 20 or more Covid-19 cases.

Concerns are being raised about the disease reentering the settings, after almost half of deaths linked to the disease happened in the facilities in the first wave.

According to the latest HPSC report there are currently 31 open clusters in nursing homes.

Chief Executive of the Senior Citizen’s Parliament Mairead Hayes says “There is a system of testing for people who are coming into these settings from the outside and perhaps to look at doing it differently rather than testing people who are coming in who are saying they have symptoms or whatever that routinely there should be a test for everyone who’s coming in from the outside”.

Meat Factories …

The number of new cases of Covid-19 in meat processing factories doubled last week.

According to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, there were 31 new infections, compared to 15 the week before.

There have now been over 1,600 cases in meat plants since the pandemic began.

Symptoms …

It’s been suggested the vast majority of people who test positive for Covid-19 don’t have any key symptoms on the day.

Research in the UK has found 86 percent didn’t have a cough, temperature or loss of taste or smell.

The analysis looked at data from over 36-thousand people between April and the end of June.

Elsewhere …

New restrictions are expected to be introduced in the North of Ireland today, after a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases.

828 infections were confirmed in the region yesterday, and over 4,400 in the past week.

Stormont’s executive will meet today to discuss further restrictions, after local measures took effect in Strabane and Derry on Monday.

Monaghan GP Illona Duffy says the whole of the North should have similar restrictions to the Republic.

MPs in the UK have launched an inquiry into their Government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Two committees will team up to look at how effective any action taken was, and to consider the advice ministers received from experts.

Witnesses will also go into the impact of the disease on the social care sector as well as on people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Scotland will bring in stricter restrictions from tomorrow including indoor dining only allowed up until 6pm.

Outdoor bars will be allowed to serve alcohol until 10, while shops will have to enforce two metre social distancing.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced a £40,000,000 stimulus package for the hospitality industry, however there’s criticism that it doesn’t go far enough.

Expert in social psychology, Professor Stephen Reicher says the rules are necessary, but attitudes need to change.

While Brazil has recorded five million cases of Covid-19.

More than 148,000 people have died with the disease, meaning the country has the second highest number of deaths, after the US.

Public health experts say people are ignoring social distancing precautions and there’s a danger of a second wave.