Deputy CMO advises public to "work from home where possible" this autumn and winter

The advice comes amid the country's "deteriorating" Covid situation.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Ronan Glynn has advised to public to "work from home where possible" this autumn and winter.

He made the comments in a video update posted to Twitter about the Covid-19 situation in Ireland, stating that over the past ten days the country has seen a "deteriorating picture".

The Deputy CMO said Covid incidence has risen across most counties and age groups, including in older age groups.

"Unfortunately, what all of this means is that we're seeing an impact in our hospital system with an increase in the number of hospital admissions and the number of people in hospital, with somewhere between 40 and 50 admissions per day on average.

"And unfortunately, we're also seeing about five admissions to intensive care every day on average."

Glynn added that while the vaccination programme has been "fantastic" and is now protecting over 90% of the population, 370,000 adults in Ireland have either not come forward for vaccination or have come forward for just the first dose.

"Their decision not to come forward for a vaccine is having a disproportionate impact on them personally but it's also impacting disproportionately on admissions to hospital and in admissions to intensive care," the Deputy CMO stated.

As for vaccinated people, Glynn said that while vaccines are highly effective against severe disease, if there is enough disease circulating in communities, a proportion of vaccinated people will get sick with Covid and end up in hospital and ICU.

"As we move into this autumn and winter period, the reality is that with vast parts of society open, we're now mixing and interacting with each other on a scale far greater than at any point in the pandemic to date," he explained.

"This gives viruses... opportunities to circulate and to make vulnerable people very unwell.

"We can all play our part to prevent that by continuing to adopt the basic measures that we've all become so familiar with over the past two years.

"Let's work from home where possible over this autumn and winter."

He also urged people to continue basic Covid-19 prevention measures like hand washing and urged people with symptoms of the virus to come forward and get tested, as well as isolate.

With almost 20,000 cases in the last fortnight, incidence of #COVID19 is increasing.
However, there is much we can do to protect ourselves & one another; get vaccinated; isolate & get tested if symptomatic (even if vaccinated); wear a mask; meet outdoors; ventilate indoor spaces pic.twitter.com/6UQ26QQJMl

— Dr Ronan Glynn (@ronan_glynn) October 15, 2021

His comments come after Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said on Thursday that a full return to offices for employees is a "little less likely" at the moment amid Covid-19 concerns.

As it stands, a number of restrictions are set to be lifted on Friday, 22 October yet in the past few days, a number of Government heads have cast doubt on the planned reopening due to the recent rise in Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations.

The government is set to make a final decision on the reopening on Tuesday.

Main image via Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie