HEALTH MINISTER STEPHEN Donnelly has said the government is not considering putting Dublin into lockdown at present, despite the rise in Covid-19 cases. 

A total of 217 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Ireland yesterday by health officials, with 103 cases being located in Dublin. 

Speaking to Newstalk’s Pat Kenny Show, Donnelly said putting Dublin into a localised lockdown is “not being contemplated at the moment”. 

Donnelly said there are higher case numbers in the north and northwest of the capital, near the border of Kildare. 

It was announced on Monday that the lockdown measures in place in Co Kildare were being lifted with immediate effect. 

The Cabinet agreed to lift the extra restrictions in place in Kildare following a meeting of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).

The rolling five-day average in Kildare was 10.8 cases as of 29th August, the government said on Monday.

This compares to a five-day average of 22.2 cases in Kildare on 6 August. 

Donnelly said that it is the public health view currently that “localised restrictions, obviously, are better than national restrictions”. 

“We now know from Kildare, Laois and Offaly that they work,” he said. 

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When asked whether officials would consider implementing localised restrictions in certain areas of Dublin which may see higher rates of Covid-19 cases, Donnelly said “it’s not being contemplated at the moment”. 

“There has been no talk of additional restrictions being brought in for Dublin, or indeed other areas. There’s other parts of the country where the numbers have gone up high, so that’s not being considered at the moment,” he said. 

Donnelly noted that new national Covid-19 restrictions announced two weeks ago were brought in as the 14-day incident rate was “going up quite quickly”.

Such restrictions included limiting the amount of visitors to a home to six people from no more than three other household, and reduced numbers being allowed attend indoor and outdoor gatherings outside household settings. 

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