Covid Ireland: ‘There is a tone that Covid is not a problem’, GP says, but ‘surge is occurring’

Health officials are encouraging the public to return to basic measures like mask-wearing and social distancing as cases have risen significantly.

The head of the Irish Medical Organization (IMO) GP Committee, Dr. Denis McCauley said there was reluctance to acknowledge this surge now that all Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted.

However, he stressed that something had to be done as hospital admissions and the number of intensive care units continue to rise.

“I think there’s an uptick, and there’s a reluctance to acknowledge that,” said Dr. McCauley on RTÉ Radio One Tomorrow Ireland.

“Numbers in hospitals are going up and this has been talked about for two weeks but unfortunately two weeks later we are seeing numbers in intensive care going up too.

“There’s something like ‘What problem?’ I think there is a problem and we need to recognize it.

“The tone is there’s no problem, people are like, ‘Covid again, come on, give us space.'”

HSE chief Paul Reid told Newstalk this morning he was “very clear in urging the public to get back to basics” like wearing masks, social distancing and hand hygiene.

He said the current surge in cases is overwhelming the healthcare system not only because of the surge in hospital admissions but also because 4,300 staff in the HSE have been absent from the HSE over the past week due to Covid019.

He added: “What I’ve made very clear this week is that from a public health perspective, we strongly encourage everyone to get back from basics, mask wearing and hand hygiene.”

dr McCauley said small changes can be made first, such as returning to mask-wearing, before anything more drastic is considered.

“We’re in a bit of denial, and there’s one political issue that we don’t want to see as a bearer of bad news,” he said.

“We know that public health measures work, we have to change things subtly at first and if that works then we don’t have to think about things like mandatory issues afterwards.”