No plan to make face-masks compulsory, says Tony Holohan

There is no plan to make the wearing of face-masks compulsory, according to chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan.

The National Public Health Emergency Team is still working on its guidelines for the wearing of “face-coverings” in certain situations, he said, but these will be guidelines rather than obligatory.

The group is expected to recommend the use of non-health grade face-coverings by people when shopping in large outlets and on public transport.

The deaths of another 15 patients were announced by NPHET at its briefing on Monday. There have now been 1,467 Covid-19 related deaths in the Republic.

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Validation of data at the Health Protection Surveillace Centre has resulted in the denotification of six deaths.

The figure of 1,467 deaths reflects this.

Some 139 new cases of the disease were reported by NPHET, including 60 notifications in the last 24 hours. The new cases bring the total number of cases to 23,135.

Of those who have died so far, 1,265 or 86 per cent had underlying conditions. The deaths involved 736 men and 731 females. The median age of deaths was 84 years and the mean 82 years.

A total of 385 people have been admitted to intensive care, of whom 71 remain there. There were two new admissions over the last 24 hours.

Research conducted for the Department of Health shows 43 per cent of the population believe that the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic is over, the highest figure recorded so far during the pandemic.

Dr Holohan said this shows a high proportion of people think “this is over, our work is done here”.

‘Stay the course’

“But the virus is still circulating, the risk is still there in our communities,” he said. “The health service will continue to prepare and respond to the virus, the public are asked to stay the course and keep up the progress we have made.”

“As we approach May 18th, the next date highlighted in the Government’s roadmap, we continue to monitor key parameters associated with Covid-19. These include the number of new cases, numbers admitted to hospital and currently in ICU and the number of deaths.”

Analysis of cases up to Saturday shows 57 per cent are female and 43 per cent are male. The median age of confirmed cases is 49 years, and 2,998 (13 per cent) have been hospitalised.

Of those hospitalised, 383 have been admitted to ICU, and 6,834 cases are associated with healthcare workers.

Community transmission accounts for 61 per cent of cases, close contact for 36 per cent and travel abroad for 3 per cent.

There are now 425 clusters of the disease in long-term residential settings, up seven on the previous day; this includes 224 nursing home clusters, up three.

Long-term residential settings account for 5,779 cases, up 72; of these, 4,519 were in nursing homes, up 50.

There have been 920 deaths associated with long-term residential settings, or 62.7 per cent of all deaths; this includes 798 deaths in nursing homes, or 54.4 per cent of all deaths.

NPHET will decide on its recommendations in relation to the planned loosening of restrictions on May 18th at its meetings on Tuesday and Friday this week.

The public has done a “great job” in “getting the numbers down” and this has had the benefit of limiting the impact of the virus on the health system, Dr Holohan remarked. “But if we get it wrong now and the reproduction number rises to a level beyond what we can cope with, we could have an even greater challenge.”

Part of this process will involve an assessment of the turnaround times for testing and contact tracing, he said, adding that NPHET was “hopeful” it will be able to make a positive recommendation on loosening recommendations.

The group will also consider what kind of ongoing testing programme is needed in nursing homes, now that the sweep of all homes has been completed.