Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome the opportunity to once again update Dáil Éireann on the Covid-19 pandemic and our national response to it. First and foremost, I wish to express my sympathy to the families and friends of those who have been lost to this disease since I was last in the House. My thoughts are with all of those who have been bereaved.

We are in the third week of phase 1 of our Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business and tomorrow we will decide whether it is safe to proceed to phase 2. I have now received the advice of the National Public Health Emergency Team in that regard and I will bring it to Cabinet tomorrow morning for its decision.

Throughout this pandemic the people have shown resilience and strength in the face of turmoil and challenge. Today NPHET met and it considered the impact of the pandemic on two age groups in particular. This virus has been difficult for everybody, but it has been particularly difficult for our children and for older people in society. Tomorrow I hope and expect that Government will be in a position to consider how we can support these two age groups who have borne particular challenges on the basis of National Public Health Emergency Team advice.

After so many weeks of hardship and sacrifice, I am conscious that we all have a strong wish to leave this disease behind us and to move forward to better times, but I am also conscious of the reality we live in. The progress that we have made against Covid-19 has allowed us to begin reopening our country, but we absolutely must remain cautious and clear-sighted about where we are.

We have successfully interrupted the transmission of this disease but it has not gone away. It has not been eliminated. It is still here with us. The WHO has said that it may be with us for a long time to come, either at lower levels of transmission or as waves of higher infection rates. The number of new confirmed cases each day continues to be lower than it has been in previous weeks but it is still at a similar level to what it was in mid-March, when we had to first bring in our public health measures. We interrupted the transmission of the disease in circumstances where so much of our society and our economy was effectively closed down. The task of maintaining this virus at a low level will be harder as we start to open up again. Let us be clear on that: it is going to be tougher to manage and maintain this pandemic as we begin to go about what will be a new normal.

I can confirm to the House that our modelling work has now shown a slight potential increase in the R-rate. This week the data suggests that the R-number in Ireland is between 0.4 and 0.7. This is a key metric and, as this House knows, we need to keep the R-number below 1 and cases low to minimise the force of infection. Otherwise, we carry the risk of an increase in cases and larger outbreaks of disease. While we may have seen a slight increase in the R-number, it still remains below 1 and that means we are still collectively as a country effectively suppressing the growth of this virus.

Other key measures of severity also continue to fall. There are 37 people in intensive care and there were 166 people in hospital on Wednesday this week. We have made progress. We have saved lives but we cannot get complacent. We cannot stop now because the day we do that is the day we go backwards. We have to continue to make and maintain progress or we risk the disease getting ahead of us. Our roadmap is clear but progress in reopening our society and our economy is not always inevitable. It is dependent and will remain dependent on the threat of the disease. We do not have a vaccine or an effective treatment for Covid-19. Having said that, we are not powerless. We have now learned how to protect ourselves and others in this country from this disease and we will make progress only if we continue, day in and day out, to practice and do what we know works. If we wash our hands, cover our coughs and sneezes, respect the 2 m rule - it is 2 m - we will make progress. If we keep the number and the duration of our contacts low and we stay away from crowds, we will make progress. Just to dwell on that point, we have seen in figures published by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HPSC, that, speaking from memory, about 59% of new cases of Covid are coming from close contacts. We know that as we begin to move about and develop more close contacts and increase the number of close contacts, that does increase the risk of the virus spreading. We need to make a very conscious effort. Regardless of what restrictions may say or what public health rules may be, there is an individual responsibility on all of us to try and keep the number of our close contacts low to slow down the spread of this virus. If we keep ourselves informed of the symptoms of Covid-19, put ourselves forward for testing if we develop those symptoms and self-isolate as we await that testing, we will continue to make progress. If we practice what we have learned and continue to show consideration for each other, particularly for groups most at risk, we will make progress.

We are making progress. Figures from HPSC show that, as of midnight on 30 May, 110 outbreaks in residential care facilities have been closed. That is 110 residential care facilities that had an outbreak of Covid-19 that have now been Covid-free for 28 days or more. Of these, 61 are nursing homes. That figure was just 29 last week. That is a very significant increase in a week in the number of nursing homes that are now able to say they are Covid-free after having a Covid outbreak. It is 32 nursing homes in our country that had Covid that now have not had Covid in over 28 days. I pay tribute to the staff in those nursing homes, the nursing home owners and the local health service for the collective work to make that progress. It shows great progress across our long-term residential facilities, which have been the front line in the battle against this virus.

This will come as a huge relief to families across the country who have been apart from their loved ones for almost three months now. They have not been able to visit a mom or dad, a granny or grandad, an aunt or uncle or a brother or sister in a nursing home. I hope the Government will be in a position tomorrow to consider some issues in relation to trying to ease visitor restrictions in a way that is safe.

On the issue of non-Covid care, I met with the CEO of the national screening service this morning.

I appreciate the need to resume screening is causing real anxiety for people, particularly women, when we consider CervicalCheck and BreastCheck. I want to assure this House, and the people who use our screening services, that a plan for the resumption of service is under way. Extensive work is ongoing and I expect real progress shortly. I have asked that our screening service liaise and meet with, virtually or otherwise, the advocacy group, the 221 Plus group, the Irish Cancer Society, the Marie Keating Foundation, and others in this regard.

I want Deputies to know that our screening service and the clinicians leading these programmes are working incredibly hard. I was left in absolutely no doubt of that. They are not just waiting. To give an example, already CervicalCheck has carried out trials of the new HPV test. It invited women to come forward through both the Irish Family Planning Association and the Well Woman Centre to see how our new HPV test is working. BreastCheck is currently working with infection control specialists to modify their mobile units. We have 20 mobile units around the country. We need to change radically how people go in and out of those facilities. Extensive work is being carried out in that regard, and also on bowel screening and diabetic retina screening. A huge amount of work is being done here. It would be wrong of anyone in this House, because no clinician can do this, to promise a return to screening as normal. Screening will have to change, and we will all have to prepare for that change. It will have to be done in a way that is safe and effective, but we will work with clinicians and staff to ensure they are protected in their duties, and that women and, indeed, men have the confidence to come forward for our screenings, and to work with our service users to ensure they are protected in trying to provide these services in a Covid-19 world. We must and will get this right, and it will be safe. I expect the National Screening Service, whom I hope Members in this House will have an opportunity to engage with, to be able to update in concrete terms how it intends to resume each of the four screening programmes, and that they will be able to provide much more detail in that regard during the month of June.

As we open more of our economy and society, and I hope that tomorrow Government will be able to recommend and proceed with phase 2 from Monday, our individual actions will matter more than ever. The Government, and the health service, can and will take appropriate measures. It will prepare for every eventuality, but we will need individuals more than ever, because the first and best line of defence is all of us as individuals, that is, the people of Ireland following the advice, continuing to wash hands, practise social distancing, and keep their number of close contacts to a minimum. This is the best chance we have of success, so let us do it for each other. Let us work together and protect each other, and in doing so I am confident we can move forward and not backwards when it comes to our roadmap.

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