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HEALTH MINISTER SIMON Harris has said the virus reproductive rate currently stands at 0.7.
Last week, the minister said the rate was estimated to be between 0.4 and 0.8, adding it was staying “remarkably stable”.
The reproductive rate gives an indication of the number of other people who are infected by a positive case.
The minister also confirmed that there are now 62 patients in hospital with the virus. There are 20 patients in ICU with the virus.
There were 70 people in the ICU when the lockdown restrictions were imposed.
It is a “significant improvement on where we were only a few weeks ago”, he said.
Steroid treatment
Harris also told the Dáil that he has asked the HSE to make the dexamethasone steroid available to treat Covid-19 symptoms.
The move follows an affirmative study in the UK that the drug causes significant drop in patient mortality.
The drug has been hailed as a “major breakthrough” in the fight against Covid-19 in the UK after it was found to reduce deaths by up to a third among patients on ventilators.
The drug, dexamethasone, is readily available in UK hospitals.
His comments today come as new data is set to be released that will show the virus breakdown for counties and electoral divisions on a daily basis.
The Health Prevention Surveillance Centre (HPSC) is now working on compiling data on the number of days since a Covid-19 case was detected for every county and electoral division in the country.
Dublin Mid West TD for Fine Gael Emer Higgins today received confirmation that the HPSC aims to release the new data for the first time this week and then update it daily.
“I am delighted that the minister has now agreed to release daily data on the number of days since a positive diagnosis for every county and electoral division in the country.
“This level of detail will provide reassurance to counties free from Covid-19 that their efforts have borne fruit and provide hope to other counties that if we continue to follow the public health advice, we are on the path out of this crisis,” said Higgins.
In the Dáil today, Harris also made an appeal to workers not to go to work if they do not feel well. He said Irish people have a great work ethic, and if they feel unwell, often take two paracetamol and go to work.
He asked members of the public not to do this, as it risks the spread of the virus. If a worker has one of the the Covid-19 symptoms, they should call their GP for advice and not go to work.
“You can’t do that during a pandemic,” he said.
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So can we go back to the old normal soon please?
@Davis Payne: The current policy has worked, changing it and going back to normal and u do not need to be a rocket scientist to work out what happens then.
@GO GREEN: pessimistic
@Mary Oliver: pessimistically correct
@GO GREEN: obviously a Fine Gael lover praising incompetent Fine Gael government
@GO GREEN: obviously you love Leo Varadkar and Fine Gael lover
@Richarddoherty: Obviously you are a moaner! He simply stated facts!
@GO GREEN: The Current policy has worked?
1) Ireland has the 8th highest per capita death rate in the World.
2) Our effective unemployment rate 28%.
3) Our fiscal deficit >€25bn – it will take us back years longer to solve housing/health crisis by years.
4) Non covid life saving medical treatments are not taking place – people are dying.
I might not be a “rocket scientist” but I wouldn’t paint this as a success. Other counties are successfully lifting restrictions much faster than Ireland (Austria, Germany, et al) and it’s perfectly reasonable to suggest we should follow same path.
@Fintan O’flaois:euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps
Well we have one of the lowest excess deaths in these countries.
In other words a lot of the people who died would have died anyway.
@Joe: We have the eighth highest death rate in the World, that’s not a measure success, stop splitting hairs.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/
@Fintan O’flaois: Try reading. All deaths are reported in Ireland. This is not true in most other countries. Try comparing apples with apples. I assume that does not suit your narrative.
@For Goodness Sake: As if you would recognise any facts beside ‘the lockdown is holy’
@8-Bit-Relic: What? Are you ok?
@Fintan O’flaois: that’s a bullshit stat though. The only real way to see how many people died of covid is to look at the deaths above average. We are doing very well on this basis so you don’t like that!
Comparing how many deaths one country has officially said was down to covid against another is a poor metric and completely unreliable!
@Fintan O’flaois: It could have been much worse- likely, thousands of people alive to today, who would not be, if nothing had been done.
@Davis Payne: until a vaccine is rolled out there can’t be a return to the old normal. Restrictions in some form are with us until then.
Says politician who is never seen wearing a face mask along with the rest of his dail buddies..
@Martin Smith: good point!
@Martin Smith: you must follow him everywhere he goes to know he never wears one.
@Martin Smith: yes he has.
@Martin Smith: So you’ve seen him not wearing a mask on public transport or inside somewhere where social distancing can’t be maintained?
@Martin Smith:all politicians should wear masks. Dick Turbin the highwayman did.
Someone should tell Harris that if patients go to the Pub for less than 90 mins they won’t get Covid19. If they go for longer than 90 min they will. Problem sorted
@BRIAN MCCARTHY: the 90 minute period is to allow queues to stay low.
@BRIAN MCCARTHY: how many pints yeah reckon can be horsed back in 90 min
@tuco: and then the problems start.
@Fabio Dillon: did you not see the queues outside Monroe’s in Galway when they opened a hatch selling takeaway pints? Or the queues for Penny’s? They queue for anything consumable in this country, pints included !!
@BRIAN MCCARTHY: Virus transmission is not exactly black and white or capable of being precisely estimated . As the time in the pub increases, risk increases. It’s been decided that the risk becomes unacceptable after 90 min, also being a round number we can remember.
We were that close to eliminating it completely.
@GO GREEN: fingers crossed
@GO GREEN: are we talking about the PfG here.
@GO GREEN: it’s highly suppressed, social distancing and stronger requirements for mask wearing should keep the r under 1 and see its eradication in the coming weeks, then it’s just a case of border control, testing on arrival and shortened quarantine of 1-2 days to process test should be sufficient.
If anecdotal evidence by commenters here about a ditching of social distancing measures amongst a proportion of the population is true then this is good news.
Wow, it took him two weeks to get that 0.4 is less than 1 … he’s a genius!
@BuffaloSoldiersky: So are you to understand that. Go to top of the class
Happy days!
When we were starting lockdown he emphasized how it takes 3 weeks to see the effects of actions taken. Now he’s delighted at no change after just one week? Let’s wait another 2-3 and see how we’re doing.
But which virus was he talking about, covid 1 covid 2 covid 9 covid 14 ?
have your say