Dáil debates

Thursday, 21 January 2021

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation

 

12:45 pm

Photo of Leo VaradkarLeo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Plan for Living with Covid-19 sets out the metrics we use to determine whether we can ease restrictions and go down a level or increase restrictions and go up a level. It includes deaths and five-day and seven-day average cases, the number of ICU beds available, hospitalisations and, of course, crucially, the trajectory. Is it getting better or worse, and if so, how fast? We have generally avoided specific or exact numbers because it confines decision-making. As the Deputy will appreciate, the number of cases detected every day might depend on the number of tests that are done and the positivity rate might depend, for example, on how much serial testing is being done from nursing homes. Therefore, we did not want to put in exact numbers but they are the kind of criteria. It is without doubt that cases are falling at the moment but, unfortunately, they are not falling enough. It is still at around 2,000 cases per day, which is high. Our ICUs are full and our hospitals are pretty full too, so there will be another few weeks left at the current level of restrictions.

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