There have been 611 confirmed case of coronavirus announced this evening alongside five further deaths.

It takes the death toll to 1,816 and the total number of cases to 39,584.

Some 218 of the new cases were in Dublin with 63 in cork, 60 in Donegal, 35 in Galway and 31 in Kildare.

The remaining 204 cases are located across 21 other counties.

There have been 611 confirmed case of coronavirus announced this evening alongside five further deaths.https://t.co/0b1m1QszRu pic.twitter.com/u0ni0U08jl

— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) October 7, 2020

The Chair of the NPHET Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group Professor Philip Nolan said the country has now entered a “phase of exponential growth.”

“Case numbers and hospitalisations are growing exponentially,” he said.

“The Reproductive number is now estimated at 1.2. If we fail to reduce viral transmission nationwide immediately, we could see 1,100 – 1,500 cases per day and 300-450 people in hospital by November 7th.”

Government rift

The Chief Medical Officer Dr Holohan also addressed the Government’s decision to reject NPHETs advice to move to Level Five restrictions – and the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar’s criticism of the advice on national television.

He said he has a “long-standing, good relationship” with Minister Varadkar and insisted he was “absolutely satisfied” that the air had been cleared after they spoke by phone last night.

The Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan at the Department of Health in Dublin, 07-10-2020. Image: Kacey O’Riordan/Newstalk

He was heavily critical of whoever leaked the advice to the media before it could be properly considered by Government.

“We conveyed our findings, analysis and recommendations to the Minister for Health and onto Government,” he said.

“They required early and serious confidential discussion. That didn’t happen because the information leaked into the media on Sunday evening.”

He said whoever leaked the advice does not share the same objective as the Government and NPHET – which is to stem the tide of the virus.

Level Five

He said he had no problem with the Government’s refusal to move to Level Five.

“We have a job to do here, which is to make an assessment of the disease and to make our advice and recommendations available to Government,” he said.

“The Government has a different job. It has to consider a range of other considerations and come to a balanced decision based on all of those other considerations.

“Not only do I respect that but I support it.”

“Really Genuinely worried”

He said it is now “incumbent on everyone, including us, to make a success of the Level Three measures the Government has now decided to put in place.”

“What I have to get across is the seriousness of the situation we are in as a country,” he said. “We are really genuinely worried and concerned about the stage of the disease.

“We are now beginning to see exponential growth not only in the case numbers but now in many of the indicators that result from the impact of the disease.

“We are seeing patterns that need not become established and are reversible but unless we individually and collectively, within ourselves, our families, our communities and our workplaces, take responsibility for ourselves and start to take actions, it will become inevitable and the kind of projections Professor Nolan has just shared with you will become a reality.

“It needn’t necessarily be so.”

Transmission

Dr Holohan said 83 of the new cases have been identified as community transmission while 50% are outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case.

He said all key indicators of the disease have deteriorated further in the three days since NPHET dropped its bombshell call for the entire country to move to Level Five on Sunday.

“COVID-19 is spreading in our community in a very worrying manner. We have to break these chains of transmission,” he said.

“80 COVID-19 cases were hospitalised in August, 206 in September and 77 so far in October.

“In August, four COVID-19 related deaths in total were reported, 34 in September and today, on the 7th of October, we report 8 COVID-19 related deaths this month.”

As of 8am this morning, there were 156 COVID-19 patients in Irish hospitals with 25 people in intensive care.

Of the 90,332 tests carried out in the past week, 4% came back positive.