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Health Service Executive chief Paul Reid has said the country faces into a \u201can uncertain, unprecedented and unpredictable\u201d time during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\nHealth Service Executive chief Paul Reid has said the country faces into a \u201can uncertain, unprecedented and unpredictable\u201d time during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
Speaking in Dublin on Friday, he said: \u201cIt is a war against a very silent and dangerous enemy. It is not one we can win with armed forces. It is one that we can win with communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Reid said the country must look after people who are well and those who are sick during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur focus in the HSE is obviously to look after the sick but as a society we do need to make sure that we look after the vulnerable and the well, because this is a challenging time for everybody.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest thing I have learned in my career is the power of social communities, how they mobilize and how effective they can be.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt certainly has been demonstrated to me in the past few weeks the one thing that distinguishes us from other European countries is the power of our communities when we mobilize.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Reid said there will be no need to worry about the number of ICU beds if the public adheres to health guidelines.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to avoid the public shifting to debate on ICU care. We will avoid that if public can win that battle if we can ask them what we ask them to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ireland will experience a surge in the number of Covid-19 cases before social distancing measures start to make an impact, an infectious disease expert has said.<\/p>\n
Professor Sam McConkey said he was \u201cnot surprised\u201d by the increase in the number of cases of Covid-19 confirmed on Thursday.<\/p>\n
A third person who contracted Covid-19 died in the Republic on Thursday, and 191 new confirmed cases took the total to 557.<\/p>\n
Prof McConkey told Newstalk FM further social measures will have to be considered if the numbers fail to level off following the expected surge.<\/p>\n
He said the figures follow an exponential curve model and he hopes that in the next five to seven days the number of cases will level off.<\/p>\n
Prof McConkey said: \u201cThere are going to be significant numbers in the next four to five days. The health sector is bracing itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it does not level off, unfortunately we\u2019re going to have to look at additional measures to flatten the curve.\u201d<\/p>\n
He praised people who have changed the way they live to help combat the virus.<\/p>\n
Prof McConkey added: \u201cThe vast majority have changed the way we live our lives. I would encourage everyone to get on message with social distancing. That\u2019s very important.\u201d<\/p>\n
The chairman of the HSE\u2019s Coronavirus Expert Advisory Group said the increase in cases in the Republic is due to a combination of the increase in testing and the virus becoming more prevalent.<\/p>\n
Speaking on RT\u00c9 Prime Time, Dr Cillian De Gascun said: \u201cWe know that testing has ramped up significantly in the past few days \u2013 we have seven or eight hospitals testing and doing up to 1,600 tests per day. Two weeks ago, we were doing two tests per day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more you test, the more you will find.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom a public health perspective, we are still in the containment phase and we want to identify as many cases as we can, isolate them and do contact tracing.\u201d<\/p>\n