We’re in the delay phase.
The containment phase is over, we have now entered the second stage of Ireland’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Speaking on Thursday morning, Minister for Health Simon Harris said we have moved to the delay phase of the response to Covid-19.
The National Public Health Emergency Team met on Wednesday night and issued new guidelines to the government which are being adopted from 6pm on Thursday evening.
These include the closure of schools, colleges, and all public facilities. You can read more on these guidelines here.
This means the containment phase of the response has passed, and in preparation for the number of cases increasing dramatically, the country has switched to the delay phase.
The key aim of this phase is to stop the Irish health service being overwhelmed by a huge number of cases at once. This doesn’t mean that fewer people will contract the virus, but the aim is to spread these cases over a longer period of time so that the health service is able to cope with the number of cases.
The delay phase will see much of the same advice given out to the public, such as encouraging the washing of hands regularly, but there will also be an increased emphasis on social distancing, such as cancelling planned mass gatherings and working from home if possible.
As of the last briefing on cases in Ireland, there are currently 43 confirmed cases in the country. An elderly woman sadly died from the virus on Wednesday, she had an underlying health condition.
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