The government is warning the country has shifted away from its trajectory in battling Covid-19 in the past week.
It comes as more than 360 new confirmed cases have been reported over the past 7 days, including 19 in Clare.
362 new cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed across the country over the past seven days, 19 of those in Clare.
The surge in cases here followed five weeks of the county being COVID-free and now brings the county total to 399.
5 people across the country are now receiving treatment in intensive care units, while 10 people who contracted the virus are in hospital, including one at University Hospital Limerick.
Government official Elizabeth Canavan is warning that the country has shifted away from its trajectory in battling Covid-19 in the past week.
She says the decision not to progress to phase four of easing restrictions was justified.
The Clare Chair of the Oireachtas Covid-19 Committee claims the failure to deal with the root cause of Covid-19 outbreaks is exasperating the problem.
The committee has this week published it’s interim Testing and Tracing report, which has made 22 recommendations including changes to the current tracing system to make it more efficient.
It’s feared that the current Covid-19 testing and tracing system is facing ‘severe stress tests’ in the coming months and Scarriff Independent TD Michael McNamara says the Government hasn’t done enough to address cluster infections:
The National Public Health Emergency Team is planning a new campaign targetting young people after a rise in cases among those under 45 in particular.
73 per cent of cases of COVID-19 in the last 2 weeks have been identified in that age group alone.
Kilmihil GP Dr Michael Harty says unless behaviour changes among young people, the Government may need to look at alternative options of tackling the virus.
