A second surge of infections could occur if the Government rushes to relax Covid-19 restrictions, a leading public health expert has said.
President of Public Health at Royal Society of Medicine, Dr Gabriel Scally, has warned against speeding up the end of lockdown measures and has backed the current roadmap.
It comes as two more people died from coronavirus, the Department of Health confirmed on Sunday.
The National Public Health Emergency Team in a statement recorded 66 new cases of the deadly disease.
The death toll here now stands at 1,652 while a total of 24,990 have been infected.
HSE boss Paul Reid said there are currently 36 people with Covid-19 fighting for their lives in ICU.
It is a significant reduction, down from 160 people in early April.
But Dr Scally has urged that we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves as it has been widely reported the Government is considering accelerating parts of the exit from lockdown.
Among those issues being reconsidered is the 20km rule for travel being relaxed as well as opening businesses and hairdressers sooner.
Dr Scally, who is the author of the Scally report into the CervicalCheck controversy, said: “For the benefit of us all, we need to get this right.
“A rush to make up for all those weeks that we’ve been bottled up could lead us in the wrong direction and it could lead to a resurgence of this (virus).
“We don’t want to get back to announcing death tolls in the hundreds.
“We just don’t want to get back there because that would lead to even more mayhem for all of us.
“We have to be very thankful that it is now under control in the Republic of Ireland and very thankful for that and thankful that we can start relaxing but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
Dr Scally acknowledged the importance of getting the economy and businesses back up and running
as it “contributes enormously to public health”.
But he said: “The last thing business needs is to have another outbreak.”
Meanwhile, former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has urged the easing of lockdown measures to be sped up but said he was nervous about lifting travel restrictions.
He added the decisions to allow Cheltenham to go ahead and to let Italians fly into the country despite the Ireland rugby match being cancelled in February were wrong.
He told RTE’s Brendan O’Connor Show: “I think waiting to stage five is too far. I would like to see stage five abandoned and progressively bring things forward. July 20 is long enough.
“You will ruin the tourist season entirely if you drift into August.
“There’s been lots of problems on the way and I look at those as things we should learn from. We made a hames of letting the Italians in when there was no match. Equally crazy to send 50,000 to Cheltenham.”
Dr Scally also slammed Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary who has criticised the 14-day quarantine for passengers on arrival into the country.
He had been copied in on an email from Mr O’Leary to Health Minister Simon Harris but said the airline chief needs to stay in his own lane.
Speaking to Newstalk yesterday he added: “I’m happy to debate public health with Michael O’Leary.
“Personally speaking, and I know a lot of people feel the same, I’d rather he got on with refunding all the people all the money he owes from the flights he’s cancelled and gets on with running the airline and leaves public health to the public health authorities.”
And in a tweet yesterday Simon Harris thanked the public for their efforts.
The Health Minister said: “We are making really (good) progress thanks to you. We think of all those sick and their families and those caring for them.
“Weekends like this are a big test for us all in our ongoing battle with #Covid19 as we go about safely enjoying the good weather and time with others outdoors.
"If we get these things right, it builds confidence for all of us and makes it easier to keep moving forward.”
