Newly released minutes of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet)’s February 11th meeting showed that it wants a “cautious approach” to lifting restrictions and that it considers it important that all people, regardless of vaccination status, should adhere to public health guidance “until the population as a whole can be regarded as protected.”

“There will, however, need to be consideration of the benefits that will accrue from vaccination and how this can influence our approach to public health measures,” the minutes state.

The team stressed the importance of ongoing efforts to prevent further increases in transmission of the virus, “particularly for younger age cohorts awaiting vaccination.”

Hospital Report

Nphet said that as more people become vaccinated, it is likely to lead to greater levels of asymptomatic infection “which will require ongoing surveillance and detention.”

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‘This is likely to necessitate more widespread community surveillance testing and the use of novel testing technologies,” said the minutes.

Concerns were also expressed at the February meeting about any further suspension of the testing of close contacts after it temporarily halted in late December due to a surge in infections.

“Should further surges occur, stopping the testing of close contacts should be a last resort,” the minutes state, summarising key points raised in the discussion about the public health officials.

Testing of close contacts resumed at the end of January as new Covid-19 cases declined.

Nphet also discussed how they had to be a focus “on building the capacity for retrospective contact tracing and more intensive measures around close contacts, particularly as cases reduce.”

There were concerns expressed about a “limiting factor with testing” with the number of swabbers available, raising the question of whether “self-swabbing” should be considered.

The public health team said that “a contingency plan must be in place,” the minutes state.

‘A cause for concern’

Also released was a letter from Nphet to the Minister of Health dated March 4th.

Deputy chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn warned the epidemiological situation concerning Covid-19 in Ireland is “improving but remains very finely balanced”.

In the latest letter to Stephen Donnelly, Dr Glynn said that signs of mobility across the population were low but were drifting upwards and that this was “a cause for concern”.

“While we are seeing continued, slower, yet constant progress against all indicators of disease, incidence remains high. Community test positivity remains high but appears to be reducing,” he said in the letter to the Minister dated March 4th.

Dr Glynn said that health and social care services “continue to experience significant pressure from the current wave of infection” and that the number of Covid-19 cases in hospital and intensive care units was “still high but continues to reduce”.

He spoke about the benefits of the rollout of the vaccine in recent weeks and the sharp fall-off in infection rates in nursing homes and other care facilities.

“The number of cases in long-term residential care settings has decreased rapidly over recent weeks, more so than would be expected given the level of decrease in the wider community,” he said.

“Deaths associated with outbreaks in these setting [sic] also appear to be decreasing, with these trends supporting the emerging evidence of the protective effect of vaccination.”