Tag Archives: no new Covid-19 deaths

This evening.

Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health Dr Tony Holohon told the nightly press briefing that no new Covid-19 deaths have been recorded.

He said 59 more Covid-19 cases have been diagnosed, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 24,698.

Meanwhile, asked about businesses calling for the two-metre social distance rule to be reduce to one metre, Dr Holohan said:

“It is not a magic thing on its own. The measure of two metres does not mean that everything is safe outside of two metres and everything less than two metres is less safe. It’s a risk.

“So that if the average distance between people is one metre, the risk of transmission of infection of this kind is greater than if it’s two metres and greater than if it’s four metres and so on.

“And we think, for the moment, two metres is a reasonable compromise given where we are. But that’s something we’ll keep under constant review and I understand the position that businesses will have articulated in relation to some of those kinds of measures.”

UDPATE:

Dr Holohon also told journalists referred to the results of a Department of Health survey “hot off the presses”.

Participants were asked “On balance, do you think Ireland is trying to return to normal either too quickly, a bit too quickly, at about the right pace or a bit too slowly or much too slowly?”

Dr Holohon said the survey’s results show more than half of participants (56%) believe that it is being done “at about the right pace” and another 24% believe it’s being done “too quickly or much too quickly”.

He said:

“That shows the majority of people are cautious. This is where the public is at. And so I understand completely why people who have responsibility, if you like, for sectors, or people who are in advocacy positions in relation to particular parts of the economy and society would fell that we need to be moving on more quickly. But this is giving us a sense of where…so we can open certain escorts in the morning for example.

“But we also have to reflect on are the public going to feel that this is the right time in terms of going to feel sufficiently reassured to feel that it’s time to use a particular service if they don’t perceive that the risk for that service had been addressed sufficiently.

No new deaths from Covid-19, 59 additional cases (RTÉ)