‘Ambitious’ reopening of society will be monitored very carefully – CMO

Dr Tony Holohan said Nphet believes it is the right time for the country to begin a phased reopening.

Dr Tony Holohan said it was right to ease restrictions in May (Brian Lawless/PA)

By Michelle Devane, PA

April 30 2021 03:44 PM

Now is the “right time” for Ireland to move forward with the easing of Covid-19 restrictions, the chief medical officer has said.

Dr Tony Holohan described the easing of lockdown measures as “ambitious but cautious”, and said that the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) would be monitoring the reopening of society “very carefully” and may have to advise a “slow down” if the incidence of the virus increased.

The Taoiseach on Thursday outlined the Government’s plan to reopen the economy on a phased basis from May.

Speaking at a Covid-19 briefing at the Department of Health, Dr Holohan said Nphet’s decision to recommend an easing of the “collective burden of restrictions” was made after careful examination.

Individuals who fall into the high risk groups and have not yet been vaccinated will continue to need to be very, very cautious in terms of their individual risksDr Tony Holohan

“It is a changed situation epidemiologically than where it was back in the springtime,” he said, adding that almost 30% of the population has received their first doses of a vaccine.

“We believed that now was the right time for us to move on,” Dr Holohan said.

“It’s ambitious in terms of scale of activities that we see being enabled for the whole population but we still think caution is necessary at the individual level and the population level,” he added.

“Individuals who fall into the high risk groups and have not yet been vaccinated will continue to need to be very, very cautious in terms of their individual risks.”

Dr Holohan said Nphet would be monitoring the public health data “very closely” in the coming weeks.

“We need to be open to possibility: if we see behaviours that are beyond what we advised and we see the emergence of non-compliance that leads to transmission that we didn’t anticipate, then we may have to take action and advise that we might have to slow down,” he said.

“It’s kind of all in our collective hands and in our individual hands.

“The greater we can keep with the range of restrictions in spirit and in letter that has been introduced for May, and hold to that and no more, the greater the chance of us getting through May safely and being in a position to move on to the next set of measures in June.”

Dr Holohan said Nphet is particularly “concerned” about the incidence of Covid-19 in Donegal, as well as parts of north Dublin and Kildare.

The chief medical officer said the “dogs on the street” know restrictions are being broken in Donegal in many different settings.

“There are clear examples of non-compliance taking place in Donegal across many parts of society. I may as well be honest about that,” he said.

“There is a concerning level of compliance compared to the rest of the country.

“A number of kinds of activities, that let’s just be honest, the dogs on the street, including those in Donegal, know shouldn’t be happening, are happening.”

Donegal’s incidence of the virus is close to 300 per 100,000 of the population, whereas the national incidence is 127 per 100,000.

Deputy chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said: “It’s clearly way over and above what we’re seeing across much of the rest of the country.

“The community positivity rate is running at about 12% compared to 7% across the rest of the country.”

Dr Glynn said workplaces did not appear to be the driver of the situation, rather the cause appeared to be “persistent and unfortunately reasonably widespread non-compliance of measures”.

These include birthday parties, peer parties, secondary school children meeting up socially outside of school and social events linked to funerals and wakes.

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