Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has weighed in on whether or not Ireland needs to reintroduce Covid restrictions to combat the current surge in cases.
Dr Holohan has told the Government that further Covid measures are currently not needed as he assured Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly that the public health advice would remain the same.
A spokesperson for Mr Martin said he had spoken to Dr Holohan, saying: "There is no change to the public health advice, and the situation will continue to be monitored."
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They added: "We continue to urge the importance of booster vaccinations to protect against serious illness as well as encouraging the wearing of masks on public transport."
Tanaiste Leo Varadkar echoed this opinion insisting Ireland would not be turning Covid restrictions "on and off".
However, despite the Government's view, medical professionals have called for the reintroduction of mask-wearing in public spaces.
The chair of the GP sub-committee, Dr Denis McCauley, called for mask-wearing to be reintroduced for several weeks. He warned that the number of patients in ICU and hospitals was gradually creeping up, saying: "I think there is a problem, and I think we need to recognise it."
He added: "Put your mask in your back pocket again. Have it with you.
"If you're going to an indoor area, wear your mask again, if you're in a large populated area outside and there's a lot of people around, wear your mask."
The Department of Health was notified of 7,038 PCR-confirmed cases of Covid-19, as well as 14,060 positive antigen tests logged online through the HSE portal on Wednesday.
As of 8am, 1,395 Covid-19 patients were in hospital, an increase of 57.
Of those, 55 patients were being treated in ICU, a decrease of six from Tuesday.
The news comes as the HSE has said that the hospital system is becoming very "choked" due to high rates of Covid infections across the country.
HSE Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry expressed concern at the number of people with Covid in hospital.
Speaking on RTÉ's Six One News, he said that while the vaccination programme has meant "much greater protection" from severe disease, there is still a severe impact on the unvaccinated.
He said there is also disruption to the health system, with many staff out on Covid-related illnesses.
Dr Henry said: "The numbers actually don't tell the whole story because in some cases this involves entire teams, so a service is disrupted or paused as a result."
He added without the vaccination programme, "huge levels" of hospitalisations and intensive care cases would be seen.
He said over 60% of residential care settings for older people are now impacted by outbreaks, with over 50 new outbreaks last week.
Earlier, HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid told RTÉ News, "Hospitals have taken individual decisions [about elective care] because many hospitals have high numbers of their beds fully taken up with Covid patients, and that is impacting on elective care."
He added: "Well over 5,000 staff are out of work with Covid, and almost 1,000 staff are out [of work] in nursing homes across the country."
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