Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has said that no Covid-19 peak is coming to Ireland due to successful efforts to ‘flatten the curve’.
The expected surge in cases and deaths has now been avoided to due increased restrictions and social distancing measures.
Speaking on the Late Late Show, Dr Holohan said society’s efforts have “saved hundreds of lives and admissions to intensive care.”
While he stressed the importance of continuing to follow measures and guidelines, Dr Holohan commented that Ireland is on the right path to further reducing infection rates.
On average, a person who is infected in Ireland is passing it on to less than one person.
“If we continue on that path the rate of infection will continue to drop,” Dr Holohan said.
The latest data shows that there are 13,980 confirmed Covid-19 cases in Ireland and 530 people have died as a result of the virus.
Dr Holohan said he believes the numbers would have been much greater without Ireland’s restrictive measures.
“We think we’ve flattened that curve so much that there is no peak, that we think we can go along at a low level and reduce it even further.”
“That’s the good news. That the impact that we’ve had from all of the work that everybody across society has done,” he said.
Looking ahead to the lifting of restrictions, Dr Holohan said the department is focusing on the 5th of May and are “hopeful”.
“We have to be careful as we lift restrictions that we don’t get an unexpected surge in that [reproductive] number,” he said.
