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AN INFECTIOUS DISEASE expert has warned that Covid-19 will continue to spread through society if the entire country is moved to Level 3 restrictions.
Professor Sam McConkey, from the RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, said Covid-19 case numbers will still rise – albeit more slowly – if the Government rejects official health advice to move the country to Level 5 restrictions instead.
It is understood a nationwide move to Level 3 will be announced by the Government this evening, following a Cabinet meeting this afternoon.
That meeting came after a recommendation from the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) last night that the entire country should move to Level 5, the highest level of Covid-19 restrictions.
Dublin and Donegal are currently the only counties on Level 3, but case numbers have gradually risen in recent weeks, with more than 600 new cases of the virus reported on Saturday.
Reacting to reports this afternoon that the Government will move to nationwide Level 3 restrictions, McConkey told a town hall meeting of the Independent Scientific Advisory Group that the outcome would be the same as most counties remaining at Level 2.
“Unfortunately, I think that will not bring the R number to less than one, that we’ll still have similar numbers of cases with just a slower rate of increase,” he said.
“And after a number of weeks, we’ll end up escalating the level [of restrictions]. I think the outcome will be the same, but just slower.”
McConkey suggested that Ireland could reduce rates of Covid-19 to almost no new cases by late December or January if strict restrictions were put in place instead.
He pointed to measures which shut down the country in March as an example of this already occurring, but acknowledged that doing so again would have to be happen on an all-island basis, with limited foreign travel an the ability for mass testing.
McConkey also claimed that county-by-county approaches were not practical, because there was no capacity to make decisions at individual county levels.
Under the Government’s Living with Covid plan, unveiled last month, counties can be placed on different levels of restrictions at different times.
“I think we do need national guidance on this. I think once we get down to low levels, where counties have no cases for two or four weeks, then certainly they could open up earlier,” McConkey said.
“That means not to people like me going in and out from Dublin, but that domestic sports and businesses within counties could open up to the people there.”
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Lucky to be alive after getting a smack from a train. Very lucky.
I hope he us not too seriously hurt
In Japan the train company sues the family for damages if someone commits suicude by jumping under a train. It sounds like this guy was somewhere where he shouldn’t have been and as a result ruined the evening of thousands of people. It may be harsh but there should be consequences.
Fools own fault, trespassing
What was he doing trespassing on the line, very lucky he wasn’t killed!
Are there not two train tracks on this line? Close the one the victim was on but switch the traffic to the other track to allow passengers to travel on, I’d think?
Martain
The traveling public are not allowed to see a dead/injured person after been hit by a train.
Id imagine it wouldn’t be too safe for the emergency workers having a train passing by so close to them either.
By all means James but once the clear up operation has been done, why inconvenience or endanger everyone else from getting home or on to where they need to be?
It might sound facile but a bloke here once drove his car onto a train line to commit suicide and nearly succeeded in killing others in the resulting crash. Worth thinking about here is the traumatic impact on the train driver in seeing someone dilerbrately putting themselves in such harms way without any chance of avoidance?
Yeah, James, imagine if some commuter chose that moment to flush. Brown mist, not nice.
Even if they did that It’s still gonna slow down the line Martin
Lost his nerve at the last second? Hope he gets help if that’s the case.
Poor boy. I hope he gets the help he needs. Before people start moaning about the inconvenience, think how he must have been feeling. To think throwing yourself under a train can be the answer it would have to be a very black day indeed.
Sounds strange. Got hit but didn’t suffer any life threatening injuries. Surely could have been dealt with faster possibly ?
Presumably there still has to be a health & safety investigation for any workplace accident involving a member of the public, plus possibly a Gárda investigation. Facts have to be ascertained with a view to seeing if similar incidents could be prevented.
God help this young lad. To feel there is no way out but this is horrendous. I hope he gets the help he needs. Take care young man and remember
H -hold
O – on
P – pain
E – eases
HOPE xxxxxxx
Was on a train to Heuston this afternoon. We got delayed in Athy for about an hour due to the incident. It could have been worse I guess.
Exactly
All I will say is I’m glad he survived , it must be first ever incident where someone actually survives after that. I was stuck in delays but it wasn’t too bad especially knowing the reason why. I usually feel very bad for train drivers, if that boy would of died how would you live with yourself knowing you killed him, but all good hes alive !
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