News

Dr Ronan Glynn says 'no room left for complacency' as cases continue to rise

Dr Ronan Glynn says 'no room left for complacency' as cases continue to rise
Share this article

The acting chief medical officer has warned the situation with Covid-19 will continue to deteriorate unless everyone plays their part to stop the spread of the virus.

Dr Ronan Glynn says there is 'no room left for complacency' and has appealed for people to reduce their contacts over the coming weeks.

430 more people have tested positive for coronavirus -- with yesterday's figure the highest since April.

212 were in Dublin and 23 in Donegal, but doctors have voiced concerns about Cork, where there were 54 cases and Galway which had 23.

Advertisement

President of the Infectious Diseases Society, professor Sam McConkey, says something has to change, or deaths will start to rise:

"Our actions are not really suitable at this point for controlling Covid-19, the way we have been behaving the last two months is not sustainable.

"We have enjoyed it and we have seen a relaxation around restrictions for businesses, but it is unsustainable to continue that."

He said as long as there is a rise in the trajectory of the virus, it will lead to younger people getting sick from Covid-19 and then spreading it to the elderly.

Advertisement

That will in turn lead to hospitalisation and ICU admissions as well as deaths, according to Professor McConkey.

Waterford

Waterford was not included in the list of counties with high numbers of cases for the fifth day in a row.

The total number of cases since the outbreak began and up to midnight on Friday is 330.

That's an increase of two since the previous day.

There's no change in the number of confirmed cases at University Hospital Waterford either.

According to the HSE's Daily Operations Update, four positive patients were on site at 8 o'clock last night,

Two other suspected cases were awaiting the results of Covid-19 testing at the time.

Continued rise

Elsewhere across the country yesterday there were 16 new cases in Louth, 15 in Monaghan, 12 in Clare, 12 in Meath, nine in Cavan, eight in Roscommon, seven in Wicklow, six in Limerick, five in Kildare and five in Tipperary.

The remaining 23 cases were spread across nine other counties.

Speaking yesterday, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said there are no plans for the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) to call an emergency meeting this week, however, he warned that could change.

“There are four counties which are being looked at very carefully and they are Cork, Galway, Louth and Wicklow."

Share this article
Advertisement