“We’re still a good six weeks away.”
It will be at least six weeks before cases of Covid-19 drop to around 100 a day, according to the Chair of NPHET’s Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group Philip Nolan.
Speaking on Morning Ireland on Friday, Nolan said that Ireland has more disease and “more severe disease” than at any time in 2020.
He said: “We still have 170 people in ICU. That is an extraordinarily high number.”
Based on the current projections, he believes that Ireland should be at around 200 to 400 cases a day heading into March and approaching 100 to 200 per day by the end of March.
Nolan stressed that the most important thing is to drive the number of cases down, saying: “Those key priorities are set out and focused on education of young people and ensuring our health service has minimum levels of Covid to deal with.”
This comes after Micheál Martin said on Thursday that Level 5 restrictions will remain in place in Ireland until Easter.
Speaking about a recent study that found that wearing two masks is safer than one, Nolan said that it will give you “extra protection if you’re forced to be in close proximity” to other people, but that the safest option will always be to keep your distance.
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