A briefing by the National Public Health Emergency Team heard that while there continues to be progress in battling the current wave of Covid-19, there is still a long way to go.
This evening, the Department of Health was notified of 47 further Covid-related deaths and 1,466 new confirmed cases.
Here are some key findings from press briefings today by NPHET and the Health Service Executive:
Progress continues but levels of disease too high
The Chairperson of the NPHET's Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group said that "huge progress" has been made in the last week.
However, the level of disease in the population remains very high.
Professor Philip Nolan said that in the seven days to yesterday, an average of 1,700 new cases were confirmed each day, compared to a peak of 6,500 in early January.
The daily incidence now is a quarter of what it was at the start of the month, but several times at the start of December.
He also said that the number of people with the virus in hospital is falling "quite rapidly at the moment". The number of people in intensive care is still high and "quite static".
The number of new admissions to ICU per day is starting to decrease.
'We've made huge progress, even over the last week,' Professor Philip Nolan has said, but cautions that the levels of disease in the population remains too high | Follow live updates: https://t.co/bFcnn6TMqH pic.twitter.com/xUVzhzORq9
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) January 28, 2021
R number between 0.4 and 0.7
The briefing heard that the reproduction rate (R) number of the virus is between 0.4 and 0.7.
Prof Nolan said that all indicators show an "enormous effort" is being made by people to reduce their mobility and keep their number of contacts low.
He said that this was translating to a rapid decline of between -7 to -9% in the number of new Covid cases per day.
The R number is estimated at 0.4 to 0.7.
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) January 28, 2021
'If we keep this up... we could be seeing case numbers as low as 200-400 by the end of February,' Professor Philip Nolan has said | Follow live updates: https://t.co/bFcnn6TMqH pic.twitter.com/yab2VKcVzd
He also said that the positivity rate for Covid-19 tests has fallen from over 20% at the start of this month to 8.4% over the last week.
He said that the demand for tests remains high, even though it has decreased over the last three weeks.
The briefing heard that the 14-day incidence rate reported today was 622, even though that was significantly down on the 1,500 at peak, it is twice the peak in October.
The positivity rate for Covid-19 tests has fallen from over 20% at the start of January to 8.4% over the past seven days, Professor Philip Nolan has said.
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) January 28, 2021
He said the 14-day incidence has fallen from a peak rate of 1,500 to 622 | Follow live updates: https://t.co/bFcnn6TMqH pic.twitter.com/x6UtvYOpVg
Borders cannot be simply sealed for 'Zero Covid' strategy - Holohan
In relation to a 'Zero Covid' strategy, the Chief Medical Officer said that some of the advocacy around it would be very difficult to apply in Ireland.
On proposals for it, Dr Tony Holohan said that many of the measures that we already have in place, including increased restrictions around travel, take us in much the same direction.
He said we are part of a union of countries in Europe which has been the epicentre of this infection in a way that other Zero Covid countries are not.
Dr Holohan said that we are fully embedded in the EU, economically, socially, politically and culturally and we are a small economy dependant on the links we have built over many years.
"We simply couldn't realistically seal the borders of this country and stop movement of people in and out," he said.
'We simply couldn't realistically seal the borders of this country and stop movement of people in and out,' Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has said, in response to a question about a 'Zero Covid ' strategy | Follow live updates: https://t.co/bFcnn6TMqH pic.twitter.com/x1eDo0dJqm
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) January 28, 2021
Prof Nolan said he felt the notion of Zero Covid was "a false promise".
He said we had to accept that in this country, no such system would be perfect and guarantee complete exclusion of any new variant or any new disease.
In this context, he said it was an "utterly false promise" to suggest we could go to Level Zero or Level One, in the Living with Covid framework, in a matter of weeks or a matter of months.
'I think it is an utterly false promise to say if we put certain things in place now we can go to Level 0 or 1 on the framework in weeks or months,' Prof Philip Nolan has said in response to a question about a 'Zero Covid ' strategy | Follow live updates: https://t.co/bFcnn6TMqH pic.twitter.com/2nLDF5OOpO
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) January 28, 2021
Close contact testing programme to resume
The Health Service Executive's programme of close contact testing, which was suspended due to pressure on the system, will resume tomorrow.
At a Department of Health briefing earlier this afternoon, HSE CEO Paul Reid said that close contacts of a confirmed Covid-19 case will be referred to a test centre for a test.
HSE CEO Paul Reid says that Covid-19 testing of close contacts of confirmed cases will resume from tomorrow | https://t.co/zUowRQi9zg pic.twitter.com/HF18c2n2U9
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) January 28, 2021
Over 161,500 vaccines administered in Ireland
161,500 vaccines have been administered in Ireland so far, including a small number of second doses.
Mr Reid said it is planned that 46,000 doses will be administered next week, focusing on second doses for health care workers and those in long-term residential facilities.
He said that the HSE is still not in a position to provide daily vaccination figures but that they are "anxious" to get there.
He said that a lot of the data collection is still manual.
