Pandemic is close to having us lock down the country again

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly. Photograph: Gareth Chaney/Collins

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Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has warned the State is at a tipping point and that the Covid-19 pandemic is close to having us lock down the country again. Speaking at the Oireachtas committee on Covid-19 on Wednesday,

Mr Donnelly said that if public health advice is followed, schools and businesses can remain open and the virus can be suppressed. The reality is we are dealing with a virus that is close to having us lock down the country again. The public health advice is that we are at a tipping point and we are doing everything we can to suppress this virus to stop a second lockdown. If a second lockdown were to happen, healthcare services will be severely curtailed. Currently, the strategy is to use targeted measures to suppress the virus while keeping as much of our society and our economy open as possible. He argued that the experiences of Kildare, Laois, and Offaly showed that suppressing the virus through this strategy was possible. If there is a second wave the Government will have to consider the blunt instrument which we know works, that is, a lockdown. We are doing everything we can to avoid that.