THE HSE’S CHIEF Clinical Officer Colm Henry has said that it is the desire of public health authorities to recommend lifting the restrictions placed on Kildare “as quickly as possible”. 

This, however, is dependent on daily data from the county and reducing the case per 100,000 population level there.

Restrictions were placed on Kildare on 8 August in an attempt to curb the rising spread of Covid-19, and these restrictions were extended for another fortnight last week. 

Henry was one of several senior HSE representatives addressing reporters at a briefing in DCU today. 

HSE CEO Paul Reid said that a second full lockdown is “exactly what we want to avoid” while Henry said that “the risks of keeping schools closed now outweigh the risk of Covid for children”.

HSE CEO Paul Reid is first up to give strategic overview.

○ 725 new cases in last week, up slightly on previous week.

○ 28 people in hospital this morning, "a little bit concerning" says Reid.

○ Four people in ICU.

— Cónal Thomas (@ConalThomas) August 27, 2020

On a day when many of the country’s children are returning to school for the first time in almost six months, questions were asked about what happen if an outbreak was detected in a school. 

Consultant Dr Abigail Collins told reporters she’s hopeful “schools won’t have to close…if that is necessary then we will take the appropriate action. I am hopeful it won’t be.

We will identify cases of Covid in children attending school. When someone has tested positive, we will take it forward.

She said: “Our priority is to not have a wide-sweeping initial approach to remove all children… that can be counterproductive.”

She added she hopes the interventions will be “more measured”, while it was emphasised at the briefing that all interventions in schools would be done on a “case-by-case” basis.

Reid, meanwhile, said a report due to be published later today on the impact of Covid-19, showed primary school children had been most affected by the restrictions.

He said that children with additional learning needs and or special needs are disproportionately affected and that anxiety levels for children may increase due to lack of routines and socialisation.

Reid added that 52,000 tests for Covid-19 had been conducted in the past week, with a positivity rate of around 0.18%. Despite that, there were 725 cases reported in the past week which is a slight increase on the previous week. 

Anne O’Connor, chief operations officer with the HSE, meanwhile said that there’s been an increase in older people accessing mental health services, but they’re expecting more younger people to get in touch now that schools are beginning to return. 

With reporting from Cónal Thomas at the HSE briefing in DCU