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The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) is expected to sign off on a final version of the plan to ease Ireland's Covid-19 restrictions at a meeting on Friday, before it is sent to Cabinet for consideration.
The number of new cases of Covid-19 reported daily will have to move in a consistent downward trajectory before any substantial lifting of restrictions will be considered, Opposition party leaders were told in the briefing by the public health officials on Wednesday.
NPHET is the body of medical experts and health service chiefs which has been overseeing the response to Covid-19 and advising the Government on steps it should take to navigate through the current coronavirus pandemic. National Public HealthEmergency Teams have been established in recent years in response to public health threats such as H1N1 (swine flu) and Carbapenemase producing Enterobacterales (CPE).
The NPHET for Covid-19 was established on 27th January 2020 in the Department of Health and is chaired by the State's chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan.
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The members of the NPHET are as follows:
Dr Tony Holohan, chief medical officer at the Department of Health.
Prof Colm Bergin, infectious diseases consultant at St James's Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin.
Paul Bolger, director of Department of Health resources division.
Dr Eibhlin Connolly, deputy chief medical officer at the Department of Health.
Tracey Conroy, assistant secretary in the acute hospitals division of the Department of Health.
Dr John Cuddihy, interim director of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC).
Dr Cillian de Gascun, director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory in UCD.
Colm Desmond, assistant secretary for corporate legislation, mental health, drugs policy and food safety division in the Department of Health.
Dr Lorraine Doherty, national clinical director for health protection in the HPSC.
Dr Mary Favier, president of the Irish College of General Practitioners.
Dr Ronan Glynn, deputy chief medical officer in the Department of Health.
Fergal Goodman, assistant secretary in the primary care division in the Department of Health.
Dr Colm Henry, HSE chief clinical officer.
Dr Kevin Kelleher, HSE assistant national director of public health.
Marita Kinsella, director of the national patient safety office in the Department of Health.
David Leach, HSE deputy national director of communications.
Dr Kathleen Mac Lellan, assistant secretary in Department of Health social care division.
Dr Jeanette McCallion, Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) medical assessor.
Tom McGuinness, assistant national director at HSE office of emergency planning.
Dr Siobhán Ní Bhrian, HSE lead for integrated care.
Prof Philip Nolan, chair of Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group and president of Maynooth University.
Kate O’Flaherty, head of health and wellbeing at Department of Health.
Dr Darina O’Flanagan, special adviser to NPHET at Department of Health.
Dr Siobhán O’Sullivan, chief bioethics officer at Department of Health.
Dr Michael Power, national clinical lead of HSE critical care programme and consultant in intensive care medicine at Beaumont Hospital.
Phelim Quinn, chief executive of Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa).
Dr Máirín Ryan, deputy chief executive and director of health technology assessment at Hiqa.
Dr Alan Smith, Department of Health deputy chief medical officer.
Dr Breda Smyth, HSE director of health and public health medicine.
David Walsh, HSE national director of community operations.
Deirdre Watters, head of communications at Department of Health.
Liam Woods, HSE national director of acute operations.
Lorraine Doherty, HPSC clinical director for health protection.