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Some public health measures will still be in place at the end of the year, Ireland\u2019s deputy chief medical officer has said.<\/p>\nSome public health measures will still be in place at the end of the year, Ireland\u2019s deputy chief medical officer has said.<\/p>\n
Public health doctors hope 80 per cent of the population will have had one dose of Covid-19 vaccine by the end of June.<\/p>\n
However, Dr Ronan Glynn envisaged some precautions to hamper the spread of coronavirus continuing.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI think there will be some element of public health measures still in place but I would hope that will be an environment which is far closer to what we have understood as normal in 2019 than what we are living in today.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Ireland had one of the strongest levels of vaccine confidence in Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully up to 80 per cent of the adult population will have received a dose by the end of June,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully we are not far away from the point where we can have much less focus on these (social restriction) measures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Glynn said the positivity rate among those tested was falling and the numbers were coming down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not where we want to be or where we need to be but we continue to go in the right direction,\u201d he went on.<\/p>\n
Another person has died with Covid-19 in Ireland, Nphet said, while a further 687 cases were confirmed.<\/p>\n
Dr Glynn said there had been no new admissions to critical care over the past 24 hours in a \u201ctangible\u201d sign of progress.<\/p>\n
This was \u201cthe first time this has happened since St Stephen\u2019s Day,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one more tangible signal of the efforts that people continue to make and how those efforts are impacting positively on the trajectory of Covid-19 in Ireland,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease stick with this over the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n