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HEALTH OFFICIALS HAVE said there are indications that the trajectory of the coronavirus is now deteriorating, despite progress made in recent weeks.
Daily case numbers had been declining up until late last week, but the average daily 5-day case count is rising, now at over 400 per day.
Today the Department of Health reported 456 new cases of Covid-19.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said: “We are concerned that, unfortunately, the very positive trajectory we have been reporting in recent weeks has at best stalled and in fact according to a number of indicators is now deteriorating.
“We really have a short period of time to turn this around, we’ve two weeks to go before December 1st and I’d like to take the opportunity this evening to implore people not to focus on Christmas unduly, not to focus on levels, whether it’s level 2,3,4, or 5, but really to start focusing again on the basics.”
He said there have been outbreaks linked to funerals, family gatherings and student activities as well as clusters in some workplaces. Glynn said he cannot rule out a connection in some cases to Halloween events, but he said most people managed Halloween reponsibly.
This recent spike, he said, can not be attributed to any one cause or settings and it may be that people are “getting tired of listening to the messages”.
“We have seen a number of clusters linked with extended family get-togethers, with student get-togethers, but this is on the back of millions of people doing the right thing, it’s on the back of a very substantial decrease in incidence amongst younger people, for example,” he said.
“On the one hand it would be an easier message for me tonight if I could point to a particular group or particular set of behaviours that’s causing us particular concern. From our perspective it’s actually more concerning that we can’ t pinpoint any one behaviour or any one group.”
He said the National Public Health Emergency Team cannot predict what the situation will look like two weeks from now but he said they are “certainly more concerned now than we were last Thursday”.
“The issue here is that it’s all over our communities and what we’re seeing is lots and lots of small clusters all across the country, that makes it very difficult for us to put in place a policy measure to stop that. Ultimately the key thing that will stop that over the coming days is people’s behaviour.”
Dr Glynn also commented on videos shared on social media at the weekend of crowds drinking together on streets in Dublin and Cork.
“Behaviour like that in any setting is frustrating and I’m not talking about for us, it’s particularly frustrating for literally the millions of people within our population who are doing the right thing,” he said.
He said it is particularly disheartening for older and vulnerable people who have been isolating themselves for months to protect themselves.
He asked people not to get distracted by these examples and to remember that there is “a very significant silent majority out there who are doing the right things, who are keeping themselves and their families safe, and ultimately keeping each and every one of us in our communities safe”.
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What more is expected from the Irish people ffs!
@Paul Mc: You can go to school and pass the virus to your 30 mates and hundreds of their family members as a result but you can’t go for a hike in the mountains… perhaps if nothing worked so far we could give common sense a try?
@BuffaloSoldiersky: here, here!! Not to mention the mental health benefits of being out in the mountains..
@Mark McGuire: There! There! It should be Hear!Hear!!!
To be fair, if a group of people want to meet up for a few beers it’s hardly wrong. The way the government have handled it is wrong
@Colin: It is when they’re using the streets around them as toilets.
.2 of the R rate is coming from schools .It could b even more .We are not being told the full effects of keeping the schools open .School buses with 50 kids on board with no face masks is the norm around the country .All the key areas of the economy have been closed yet the figures get worse .It’s time to take a serious look at this .
@Gerry Malone: it’s schools. All day long. If a kid brings it home and spreads in the house it’s considered a household cluster. School buses are full and younger kids can’t be expected to be socially distant all the time. I’m not saying shut the schools. Kids need an education and it’s important to keep them open but schools are the main driver here so they’re just going to have to manage case levels and have actual proper contact tracing.
@Aidan O’ Neill: Again, where’s the evidence? Just because numbers rose in the autumn doesn’t prove it. There are many other coinciding factors (lower humidity, family/friends gathering indoors instead of outdoors, lockdown fatigue)
@Thomas O’ Donnell: there is no evidence. People calling for school closures are prime examples of people who unfortunately cannot see the bigger picture on societal priorities. Lockdowns on the other hand force more intergenerational home sharing which can be a factor on spread.
@Thomas O’ Donnell: where the evidence it’s spread in pubs as well know all
@Thomas O’ Donnell: the evidence is pretty much in front of us. Cases exploded towards the end of September and in October. Now they are rising again two weeks after mid term. I don’t think schools should close. Kids need an education, but I think this patronising NPHET talk every few days is wearing people out. Kids need an education and people need to be able to work. Cases will likely stay around this level. The first lockdown was wasted and I’d bet money we won’t go to level 3 in December. Either way we can’t go back to April levels of lockdown so they’re going to have to manage levels going forward.
It’s obviously the 1.2m students in this country packed into tiny classrooms, the 2nd wave began when schools were back and the decline has now ceased correlating to 10-14 days after mid terms ended.
It couldn’t be any more obvious where the spread is happening but lets all continue blaming the few dozen people having a pint on the streets instead.
@Rochelle: The second wave began before schools went back
@Rochelle: The problem is adults behaving like kids not kids.
@Thomas O’ Donnell: case numbers dropped during the Halloween break and are on the increase since schools reopened.
@Thomas O’ Donnell: no it did not. I say you want the children out of your hair so you can sit back watching Netflix
@Rochelle: exactly. There will always be a base level of cases if the schools are open during level 5. I’m completely in favour of schools staying open but I’m sick of NPHET trying to blame everyone else because it doesn’t suit the narrative.
@Rochelle: yep , remember when they were at pains to say you couldnt read any trends as it takes a minimum of a couple of weeks to see the impact of restrictions – and the level 3 impacts were driving the numbers down – and quite a bit – from 100 cases a day to below 400 – and now the real measures of this level 5 with schools construction etc all open and suddenly we are ‘concerned’ again – and the 400 number is a real worry – even though the cases are younger people and the 33 people in icu is very manageable and way down on the 140 from the peak – and we didn’t need all that extra capacity we paid for back then – and yet here we are – fear mongering and ramping up the anxiety levels all over again – they need to rethink their communications at NPHET – this relentless fear and finger wagging is losing the people.
@Aaron: Change the testing regime for children to match that of adults. It’s a joke that parents can catch covid from their kids bringing it home from school but because of differences in testing routine it looks like the adults infect the kids.
Why are they moving the goal post all of a sudden? They’ve been focus on 14 day average for weeks and now all of a sudden they’re focusing g on 5 day average
@Ellen O Reilly Porter: Have you seen the figures for the 2 hour average? Truly shocking..Dublin Live will post it in morning
If we’re going to have a lockdown let’s have a lockdown, close the schools, stop international travel, enforce the rules. Instead of this Micky mouse half asset lockdown that goes on for months
@Colin: I agree should have been short and sharp.
@Colin: totally agree with you on that! It’s been a total sham of an effort. Only a total lockdown will clear the numbers quickly, instead of destroying some businesses with this drawn out ridiculous shambles of a shutdown.
@Freda Hanratty: but what are you going to do after a short sharp lockdown and the numbers inevitably go up again- have another lockdown? How long do you think we can keep doing that?
Close the schools
@Crig: Do you mean Scrooooooooge??
Where did this 5 day incident rate come from? It’s always been 7 or 14. Just making it up so they can paint a bad picture
They promised this level 5 lockdown was necessary and would allow us to have a meaningful Christmas and with 2 weeks to go there already saying it hasn’t worked, there plan has failed and are passing the buck for the failure to all of us and sating we need to do more, how much more of this nonsense are people going to put up with and as many have mentioned on here the feeling amongst the elderly now is they have had enough also they have basically been confined to their houses for 9 months now, alone and lonely, what can covid do to them that isolation and loneliness hasn’t done already
What a tool, 400 cases across a population of 4.9m people with 99% of these cases getting through it fine. But sure let’s force 350,000+ people out of work. Public sector decisions when they have not missed out on one cent.
2 weeks to turn this around, we are under your level 5 lockdown, what more do u want, 276 in hospital out of 5 million, lost control of the casedemic
Close the schools.
What do they mean by ‘short period’? Aren’t we confined until Christmas 2021 or 2022?
By then, Google will have taken over schools and Amazon will have wiped what is left local. No need to move anymore.
asking people not to think about Xmas while saying we don’t know what is going on doesn’t build confidence
I’m not able to speak for everyone, just myself.
I’ve had enough of this lockdown. I can’t see the ones I love. I can’t do any of the things I love (none of which are actually highlighted for spreading covid). All for what ? THE CASES ARE GOING UP.
Let me feel justified in my sacrifices by seeing the results that reflect them but no, we get more negativity shoved down our throats.
3/4 of this country is putting themselves at great reprieve for what exactly, 495 cases and two doctors continually lecturing us and telling us we aren’t doing good enough?!
I don’t want anyone to die , I don’t want to break restrictions. Is life worth living if we can’t be with the people we love or partake in things we love ?
“Its only another 2.5 weeks until lockeown is over”
My arse.
@JillyBean: I feel exactly the same well said have had enough of this
@JillyBean: I feel every word you wrote! Nphet wants us all terrified hiding in our houses. They have complete control of us.
@JillyBean: you said it for me, done with the whole hypocrisy of the restrictions, and listening to Covid stories 24/7, it’s utterly head wrecking…I’m wearing mask etc etc, but I’m going about my life as usual including working in a hospital since this all started.
@JillyBean: J dont usually reply to comments but yours is so right. I feel for you and I agree with you.
Ppl are tiered off all this
@Ray Jakans: aaaw, poor ray, boo hoo, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw, he’s tired of this.
@Damian Baker: i get jokes.
Wow new measurement is 5 days rate when it used to be 7 and 14. This must suit their story of level 5. Ireland has the best 14 day rate in Europe.
Most of this would have been achieved at level 3
@john s: they would be happy to keep us at level 5 forever, and under the thumb, but we shall rise!
Well we were bucking the trend across Europe in general with reducing cases. Testing is the obvious answer. We only tested 73,000 this week but we’ve the capacity to test 120,000 why are we not utilising this ability? Test everyone entering the country. Why are we not utilising antigen testing? It’s cheap, about 90% effective and could be rolled out across schools, 3rd levels, nursing homes, hospitals etc.
@John O’Brien: testing is down because restrictions are having an impact. Problem is they got their calculations wrong and can’t meet the target they promised the government when we went to level 5 so they have to blame someone else. Hospitalisations are down. Positivity rate is down.
@Derdaly: Obviously that’s why testing is down, the point is they can use the surplus capacity to test higher risk groups randomly! keep up!
This lot are getting far too much power, shutting down businesses with a wave of their hand! All the while ignoring the elephant in the room, which is the schools are causing the rise in numbers! I get the feeling that NPHET are determined to stop us having any sort of normal Christmas, because they have to justify their inadequacy in being able to control the numbers of cases.
@David Jordan: There have been some concerted media attempts circulating these kinds of messages, an attempt no doubt to discredit any narrative that is contrary to now very shaky public health responses. The article you quote is very biased against three hugely reputable individuals in their field. It also quotes ‘buzfeed’ as a source which says it all really.
More clusters Inn meat factories exactly same as last time numbers went up, let’s remember it started in kildare and Monaghan in meat factories, migrant workers and people living in direct provision who go to work ill because they don’t get sick pay and are on slave wages, if there was an outbreak in Dunnes they’d have to close till place was decomtaminated from top to bottom but these factories can just carry on working even though clusters
@nelliekel: You’re seeing the power of meat processing plants play out here, Varadkar trying to bring in more protections for workers is a bit too little too late
@SaveTheTrees: he’s not even really trying to bring them in either.
Schools reopening would appear to be a contributing factor to the recent increase in cases.
Schools on midterms = cases went down
Schools return – cases go up…
….not difficult to see the trend
In the article with the daily numbers, the chart showed the incidence rate for the country at 120 per 100,000.
This means that 99.88% of the population is Covid free.
For the unfortunate .12% of the population that contracts the infection, 99% of those will suffer mild symptoms if any at all.
Good news all round.
Yet just two hours later Dr Nolan emerges with more doomsday porn, along with the inevitable outpouring of judgemental guilt tripping comments from the Covid Cult, like addicts getting an unexpected fix.
It’s like NPHET are going out of their way to antagonise the public.
The problem here is evident, Yo-Yo lockdown approach doesnt work, they had the cooperation of the people back in March and most complied, while our politicians played musical chairs and told us all to light a candle for the HSE workers, Instead of actually increasing ICU capacity, and did nothing to ensure a safe reopening. Fast forward 6 months, and people are obviously fed up, and the more we continue with this approach the more we’ll see this, its only normal that people want some kind of escape from the daily doom and gloom, people have gone through alot this year, and its only normal that some start to crack now. Dont blame humans for being social.
Get Phuked!
So we were doing better under level 3 than under level 5.
It’s time for Level 5 to stay
@sean o shea: Why would anyone say that? We are losing support for the restrictions. The positive effects were likely produced while we were still under the level 3+ regime.
Locking the whole society down doesn’t seem to work anymore.
@Vanessa: locking down the whole society was never going to be sustainable. Terrible strategy from the beginning.
Does anyone know if the minister still alive.
@David Jordan: Any research into who’s backing ZeroCovid? Or practically any pro lockdown studies? I think you’ll find plenty of vested interests on both sides. Fauci, for example, has particular interests in vaccine companies. Care to post any of these or is it just anti lockdown doctors and scientists you wish to discredit?
How can we not focus on levels? These are the very things which are telling us what we allowed to do!
I need blood tests done and the company I use doesn’t operate on level 5. For me it’s pretty much a kind of important metter which level we have.
So currently if a member of a household with school going kids/teens gets infected, does that entire school get tested?
@SaveTheTrees: No
@SaveTheTrees: The entire class doesnt get tested nor mind the school
@Sarah Cullen: Close contacts get tested and the class is sent home to isolate. Happened in my daughters school a few months ago and no further issues.
@Trevor Wallace: Thanks for clarifying
I’ve noticed recently there has been an increase in cash transactions, a few weeks ago it was mostly cards, I don’t want handling cash.
Close the Dail, disband Nepht, sack Holohan and open up our Country. Aks the bloody lot of them whats the trajectory figures for deaths from cancer because of this lockdown.. becuse there will be more deaths from medical neglect than this virus.
Just do it. Do more. We are in a lockdown anyway so get the numbers sorted. Do everything required but do it now. There is no time to procrastinate. We need action.
@David Jordan: I could be wrong but didn’t he finance Trump back in 2016 and all?
Ah lads. It the greatest makey up lockdown. Pubs closed does not equal lockdown. When u can buy a Christmas tree in November as an essential journey or purchase you are not taking this seriously.
We need level5 +++++ for the next 2 weeks but we need it now. Today.
Close the borders and open the Country. The last thing we need is a backward Government but that’s what we have.
Quite a lot of the spread could be down to the colder weather coupled with the switch to indoor living at this time of year. People should be encouraged to take outdoor activities in a socially distanced manner.
Where I live (South Africa) the hotter weather seems to keep the virus at bay and most people live an outdoor lifestyle. People also get their vitamin D fix naturally. Also mask wearing and hand sanitizing are by and large taken very seriously. Taking the advised precautions work. The problems arise when people take the “it won’t get me” attitude. It is a matter of adjusting to a new routine and keeping the mind active. Turn the negative into a positive will help the person’s mental wellbeing.
The problem lies with the government and the half-arsed lockdown. It’s one rule for us and one for government, we cant have a pint or go for a meal, but they can gather for golf and party in the Dail bar. But yet they won’t sit together in the Dail, prefer to waste thousands a day in a conference centre, lead by example.
‘We have a short period of time to turn this around’ – Well then close schools, keep essential services truly essential, implement proper testing and tracing, roll out and mandate the use of FFP2 (at least) masks, you muppets!
Close the schools and enforce mandatory quarantine in hotels when entering the country like in other countries at the moment and impose strict fines for any gatherings. Ez done ,look at new Zealand
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