Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has presented Cabinet with an emergency response plan to ensure Ireland can appropriately deal with a new Covid variant of concern.
This will be put in place if there is a risk to public health with the potential for high morbidity and mortality.
These plans allow for the rapid escalation of testing, tracing and surveillance activities.
Plans are in place for the speedy mass vaccination of the entire eligible population should this become necessary.
While it is not envisaged that these plans will be required, they are in place to ensure the country is prepared.
There are no plans to introduce mandated mask-wearing, but if required the mask mandates in certain settings (eg transport and healthcare) will involve a point-in-time assessment of indicators and will take "due consideration of the personal, ethical and public health perspectives".
The Government heard today that any such mandate will be pursued in a proportionate manner and will be of limited duration.
The current public health advice encourages mask wearing on public transport and in healthcare settings.
People who are medically vulnerable are advised to consider wearing masks in crowded indoor settings.
Mr Donnelly said there has been a "significant" increase in the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 over the last week.
Speaking on his way into a Cabinet meeting this morning, he said that while only 40% of those are in hospital because of Covid-19, there are knock-on effects as a result of infection control.
As of 8am, there were 474 people in hospital with the virus, up from 464 on the same time yesterday and 409 last Tuesday. Of these, 13 people are in intensive care units with Covid-19.
There has been a 'significant' increase in the number of people in hospital with Covid-19, according to Minister Stephen Donnelly.
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) October 11, 2022
He added that the Government 'hope things will remain calm' over the winter | Read more: https://t.co/0eg5CUTyOM pic.twitter.com/19YflKuxNJ
Mr Donnelly also said there has been a huge uptake in Covid vaccines and that last week 80,000 people availed of a vaccine.
"We hope things will remain calm with Covid, but we can't plan on that basis," he said.
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Also speaking as he arrived at Government Buildings, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said there was a briefing by the CMO last night who said that Covid-19 cases are rising again, but said "we would expect to be able to manage without any new restrictions".
Covid cases are rising but the Govt 'would expect to be able to manage without any new restrictions', Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said.
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) October 11, 2022
However he asked people to consider wearing masks again in crowded places and encouraged people to get vaccinated | More: https://t.co/tn0LhSwvwG pic.twitter.com/dpTEcFKlTd
However, he asked people to consider wearing masks again in crowded places and encouraged people to get vaccinated.
Meanwhile, the HSE has published its Winter Plan which promises to deliver 543 outstanding beds.
This includes 321 acute beds and 20 intensive care beds and other beds promised under previous Winter Plans and National Service Plans.
The Winter Plan 2022/23 has funding of €169 m and will include the recruitment of 608 new posts.
The HSE's chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry said there has been a "big uptick" in the Covid-19 vaccine programme in the past week, with 78,000 jabs administered, making it the "biggest weekly number since January".
Dr Henry said natural immunity and immunity from the vaccine programme is "going to stand us in a good position" heading into the winter.
Speaking to RTÉ News Six One, Dr Henry said: "The variant that swept through Ireland in spring and summer was highly transmissible, many times more transmissible than that which we encountered in 2020, and, really, most people in Ireland would have been exposed to this virus in one shape or another, so we have built up quite a bit of natural immunity and immunity from the vaccine programme and that's going to stand us in a good position going into the winter."
But he said the "vaccine wanes against infection'' and he would encourage anyone offered a booster vaccine to get it.
"It's not too late to protect you, your family and your community," he said.
The Winter Plan says that potentially Ireland could see up to 4,350 hospitalisations due to influenza and up to 17,000 Covid-19 hospitalisations during the winter period.
Additional reporting Dyane Connor, Fergal Bowers
