The Government has told parents that schools are still expected to open on January 11.
Following the news on Sunday evening that there have been almost 5,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland in one day, the chief executive of the HSE has stated that this won’t be the highest number we should expect to see this week.
Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Paul Reid said that “We most likely will be seeing case numbers in the coming days of 7,000 per day, and that is just a frightening scale.”
Reid also stated that all non-urgent or elective healthcare would be scaled back this week, much like it was during March at the start of the first lockdown, stating the following:
“I think we’ve run out of adjectives to describe how serious it is at the moment. The trajectory we’re looking at would tell us within January we could be rising to 1,500-2,000 hospitalised cases, and a rise in ICU from anywhere from around 250 to 430. That’s how serious it is.”
Despite the drastically rising numbers, the government is telling parents to expect schools to still reopen on Monday, January 11.
Speaking to On the Record with Gavan Reilly, Minister Eamon Ryan said the following:
“It is something we have to review and look at but the evidence and I think the public health advice on this is yes, we should be able to do it. What we’re doing here is two goals, one is to protect our health system and life and secondly, to protect our young people’s future and get them back to school.
“If we act collectively and all say at home for the next week which we can do, then I believe it’s safe for our schools to reopen.”
However, Minister Ryan also stated that the 5km travel radius may be reduced to 2km if the numbers fail to flatten.
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