TD Stephen Donnelly has shared an encouraging coronavirus statistic that shows how strong measures could slow the spread of the killer bug.
The Fianna Fail Health spokesman referenced Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's announcement earlier this week that we could see a huge surge of cases, with a 30% increase every day.
However, Mr Donnelly said that this number does not include the stringent measures the Government has taken to help slow down the virus.
And he claimed that even a small difference in percentage increase every day can make a huge impact.
He wrote on Twitter: "Important clarification received today at HSE briefing.
"The predicted daily 30% growth rate, which gives the 15,000 cases by the end of the month, does NOT include the potential impact of measures taken (eg closing schools), nor great efforts by public, businesses, etc.
"For context, reducing the daily growth rate from 30% to 20% would bring the 15,000 down to less than 5,000.
"At 3 weeks it’s 94,000 at 30% or 17,000 at 20%.
"At 4 weeks it’s 600,000 at 30% or 60,000 at 20%."
And we will soon start to find out how effective the school shutdown, pub closures and social distancing measures have been.
But there are some encouraging signs, after it was announced yesterday that there were just 78 new confirmed infections on Wednesday, a 25% increase - much lower than predictions.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan had warned at the start of the week that 109 new cases were predicted on Wednesday.
