THE CHIEF MEDICAL Officer has expressed concern about the number of Covid-19 cases in the community, particularly among younger people.

On Friday the government outlined its roadmap for the easing of restrictions, with Phase 1 due to kick in on 18 May. From that point outdoor work such as construction will be allowed to start again and small groups will be able to meet outside while maintaining physical distancing.

There are five phases in total, which will take us to 10 August. Both the government and health officials have warned that the details of this document are not set in stone. Depending on the rate of infection in Ireland, we may move more quickly through the phases than originally planned or we may have to step back a phase.

At this evening’s press conference at the Department of Health, Dr Tony Holohan said the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) is largely optimistic about the progress made, but would like to see the number of new cases in the community dropping to a lower level now.

“We’re seeing continued improvement in the number of incident cases, the number of cases coming from the nursing home sector has slowed down,” he said. “We are seeing a persistent number of infections coming from the community, if I’m honest about it, particularly from younger people in the community, it’s a number that isn’t falling as much as we would like and we’re keeping an eye on that.”

Holohan said the number of people in intensive care units is continuing to drop so they are “seeing trends moving in the right direction”. However he said he could not say today that we will be in a position on 18 May to begin Phase 1 of the roadmap.

“If the conditions were today, I think we still aren’t at that point. But I’m hopeful.”