The Tánaiste has said he does not believe new restrictions are needed ahead of this morning’s NPHET meeting.
Leo Varadkar told his Parliamentary Party last night that the country is doing substantially better than the most optimistic scenario put forward by NPHET.
He said the figures he was sceptical about the need to impose new restrictions on people’s freedoms, family life and businesses at the moment.
He warned however that daily case rates remain high and the situation could deteriorate quickly.
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach Micheál Martin told his Parliamentary colleagues that the latest virus wave has stabilised – but figures are still high and could go the wrong way very quickly.
Leo Varadkar confirms this to his parliamentary party this evening.
Says he’s “skeptical” imposing new restrictions would be warranted at the moment https://t.co/L5kVtiJXj9— Seán Defoe (@SeanDefoe) December 1, 2021
NPHET is meeting this morning to consider whether any new restrictions are needed and discuss the new Omicron variant.
The first case of the variant was detected here yesterday and the Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said officials would ‘assume the worst’ until they know more.
The Government introduced new travel restrictions in response to the variant earlier this week; however, World Health Organisation Special Envoy Dr David Nabarro told Newstalk they won’t have much impact.
“We don’t imagine that will be enough to stop this virus variant from becoming a dominant variant in Ireland if it wants to,” he said.
“This virus is going to spread and particularly if it has got some advantages, like it transmits more easily or it can evade the protection we have from the vaccines that are being used at the moment.
“If it has these advantages, I can tell you, this variant will become dominant.”
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach is urging people to calm and cautious until more evidence emerges about the Omicron variant.
Micheál Martin said he spoke to the European Commission president about the issue this evening. Ursula von der Leyen told him it will take two weeks to fully assess the strain.
He says we need a combination of vigilance, reduced socialisation and an accelerated booster campaign in the meantime.
Dr Nabarro said strict travel restrictions rarely contain viruses.
“In my experience, blanket travel bans from particular parts of the world where a virus has been discovered don’t actually stop that virus from spreading,” he said,
“Let’s not make travel into a terrible obstacle course. Let’s make whatever we put in place really easy for people to do.”
As of yesterday, a total of 59 cases of the new strain had been confirmed in 11 European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries.
All the patients were either asymptomatic or were experiencing mild symptoms. There have been no severe cases or deaths related to the variant reported in EU/EEA yet.
A further 3,793 new COVID cases were announced in Ireland last night.
Yesterday morning, there were 578 COVID-19 patients in Irish hospitals – down one on yesterday and 5% on the same day last week.
There were 117 in intensive care, which is down 11% on last week.
