Increasing Covid cases not a second wave, head of the HSE says
The head of the HSE said the latest increased figures for Covid-19, which have led to the localised lockdown of three Leinster counties for two weeks, do not represent a second wave of the virus.
Paul Reid moved to ease fears about the spread of the virus, describing the increase in cases as a concern but not a second wave.
“I don’t think we are at a second wave. If you stand back and take a look at our incidence rates across the country and take out the impact of the three counties at the moment it wouldn’t indicate we are at a second surge,” Mr Reid said, adding that similarly positivity levels elsewhere in the country apart from the affected areas remain low, while no spike has been seen as yet in either hospitalisations or ICU admissions.
“But, as we know with how this started, it can rise very quickly,” he said.
Mr Reid said that the spike in cases in counties Kildare, Laois, and Offaly is “a significant concern”, and said that while the majority of the new cases appear to be concentrated in those places, there remains a set of roughly 50 cases which are “spread right across the country”.
The majority of cases in the lockdown counties have been sourced from a number of meat processing plants and, to an extent, the accommodation within direct provision centres of their workers.
Speaking on Newstalk, Mr Reid said that across the weekend the HSE had implemented a number of actions on virus testing, with mass testing taking place in the plants affected now expected to extend to similar facilities elsewhere in the country, a process likely to continue for several weeks.
He said that a process of serial testing is also set to commence in long-term care facilities and nursing homes, together with direct provision accommodation.
Mr Reid placed particular focus on the need for meat plant administrators to consider options as to how their employees travel to and from their workplace, together with the need for employers and employees alike to adhere to public health advice on effective infection control.
“There are a whole range of societal and workforce organisation issues here that need to be addressed as well,” he said, citing the potential problem of language barriers for employees as one example.
Regarding the need for the public to remain vigilant, Mr Reid said the “one thing that has been absolutely consistent is this virus”.
“It doesn’t take a break, it doesn’t get tired. It’s resilient and it will keep going the way it has gone from the start, and we have to match it with our resilience,” he said.
Mr Reid also spoke about the need to renegotiate the contract between the State and the private hospitals for the coming winter season, adding that he was hoping for a “more agile system”, one which would see the need for additional capacity met quite quickly should further emergencies occur.
He denied the previous deal had been inappropriate.
“We saw a massive impact on a frightening scale, a scary scale, of what was happening in the acute hospital system.
"We had to mobilise quickly (before) because we know the Irish health system on a good day operates at a 95% capacity,” he said.
“It wasn’t a mistake to get extra capacity, but what we will have learned is that we need something a bit more agile.”