Stephen Donnelly’s latest Covid warning shed some light on the potential for a return of winter restrictions to curb the next wave of the virus in Ireland.
The Health Minister warned there has been a 'significant’ rise in the number of cases being reported here and said hospital numbers are already on the rise.
He spoke on Tuesday as he was bringing a memo to the Government outlining potential steps to be taken if there is another Covid wave - based on the advice from Chief Medical Officer Professor Breda Smyth.
READ MORE: Stephen Donnelly gives grim winter restrictions update as cases rise ‘significantly’
The memo states that, if required in the near future, the re-introduction of mask mandates will be essential in settings like transport and healthcare.
However, any move to introduce previous measures will involve "a point-in-time assessment of indicators”, saying this will require "due consideration of the personal, ethical, and public health perspectives”, according to RTE.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning, Minister Donnelly said the Government “hopes things will remain calm.”
He said: “Obviously we hope things can remain relatively calm with Covid, but we can’t plan on that basis. We’ve seen a very significant increase in Covid hospitalisations over the last week.
“Now only 40% of them are in hospital because of Covid, however everyone who is in hospital with Covid needs to be cared for obviously, but there are also knock-on effects because of infection prevention control measures.
“So for every person we have in a hospital bed with Covid, there’s a knock-on effect on other beds and other parts of the hospital that need to not work at full capacity for infection prevention control reasons.
“So really, the conversation I’ll be having with Cabinet this morning is around, we know we're facing into a very difficult winter, we know it’s going to be very difficult for patients, we know it’s going to be difficult for our healthcare professionals right across the country.
“We have a big investment, big recruitment around emergency departments, and an ongoing focus through the autumn and the winter on Covid and living with Covid.”
This comes as more than 1.6 million positive Covid cases have been confirmed in Ireland over the last two weeks.
There are currently 474 confirmed Covid cases in hospitals, of which 13 are in ICU.
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