However, he also said: “2022, my gut is telling me it’ll be better.”
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic “could very well be” ahead.
He made the comment on the Brendan O’Connor show on Saturday after announcing a handful of new restrictions designed to curb the spread of the virus in light of the new Omicron variant.
Among the new measures revealed on Friday evening is a requirement for all restaurants, bars and cafes, excluding take-away or delivery services, to close at 8pm from midnight on Sunday night.
In his address announcing the new restrictions, the Taoiseach said Ireland was going to see a “massive rise in infections” on account of the Omicron variant.
Speaking to O’Connor, Martin said he was “very worried” about the strain of the virus.
“I’m apprehensive in terms of what this might mean in terms of [the] sheer scale of infection, volume of cases and the great unknown at the moment which is why we can’t take risks,” he explained.
“The great unknown being how severe is this in terms of requiring hospitalisations and ICUs and just damaging people in terms of health.”
Asked if he thinks the worst of this pandemic could still be in front of us, the Taoiseach replied: “Well, it could very well be.”
“It’s that severity question that is unknown and the data simply isn’t there,” he added.
The Taoiseach then referred to reports that it may take two to three weeks to have a sufficient number of Omicron patients in hospitals to determine how the strain impacts the public’s health.
“We simply cannot take the chance to wait for that to happen because by then it will simply be too late and real damage will have been done if we didn’t intervene,” he told O’Connor.
The host also asked the Taoiseach if it was “wishful thinking” to think that Ireland’s Covid situation in the coming weeks might be better than anticipated and that the restrictions announced on Friday could be reviewed.
“We’re going to keep them under constant review. It’s never wishful thinking,” Martin responded.
The Taoiseach also told the show that an aim of the Government currently is getting as many of the population quickly vaccinated and boosted as it possibly can.
“The positives are the vaccines do protect us from severe illness,” he explained.
“They may not protect you, the first and second dose, from infection, from getting infected but the public health and experts in the field believe it will give significant protection against severe illness.”
The Taoiseach also said his “gut” is telling him next year will be a better year in terms of Covid-19.
“I think there will be more advances on medicines, there’ll be probably towards the latter part again more developments on vaccine fronts,” he stated.
“I don’t see any silver bullet but I think if you add it all together, our capacity is getting stronger to resist this.”
Main image via Julien Behal Photography / RollingNews.ie
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