A worrying statement from the Minister for Health.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said that Ireland could see 150-160 new cases of Covid-19 cases per day within the next month.
Donnelly's comments come in the wake of Ireland's R rate rising to above 1, with Donnelly saying that the country will now need to work hard to avoid a significant spike in daily cases.
Speaking to Morning Ireland, he said that NPHET are very concerned, saying: "This R number, which we're all very focused on, has gone above 1. They believe it's somewhere between 1.2 and 1.8. If it's 1.8, they believe that within about three weeks, we could be up to 150-160 (cases) per day."
Donnelly said that NPHET did say that this is not the start of a second wave, but that we must be doing everything we can to stop this from happening.
Donnelly was also asked about whether or not he felt that the wearing of face coverings in retail outlets should be mandatory.
He said that penalties will be enforced if people do not comply, though he believes that they will not need to be used often, saying: "We're all in this together."
He also confirmed that as of Thursday morning (16 July), over 1.3 million people have downloaded the official Covid tracker app.
The interview in full can be seen here:
https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/1283660886725611521?s=20
