Isolation requirements for close contact should be relaxed and it makes sense that people who have received a booster, have no symptoms and had a negative antigen test be allowed to return to work, Tánaiste said. Leo Varadkar.
Currently, close contacts of a positive case who have not yet received a booster are required to restrict their movements for 10 days, while those who are boosted are required to restrict their movements for five days.
Due to the unusually high rate of Covid-19 cases, these rules have caused significant disruption in many sectors of society as staff shortages have impacted businesses and services.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan and senior members of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) are expected to submit new advice to the government on close contact today.
This opinion will then be considered by Cabinet on Wednesday.
Mr Varadkar said it “made sense” to people who were boosted, had no symptoms and had a negative antigen test to return to work.
“Essentially with any public health advice you have to balance whether it would cause more harm than good,” he told RTÉ’s News at One.
“I think we need to relax the rules on close contact, but we need to find a way to do it that’s safe.”
New proposals
A new notice from the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC) for countries experiencing extreme stress on their health systems was released over the weekend. He offered options to EU member states to shorten quarantine periods. This includes removing the need to quarantine close vaccinated contacts of people infected with Covid-19 if the health system is under extreme pressure.
| Confirmed cases in hospital | Confirmed cases in ICU |
|---|---|
|
1062 |
92 |
Other proposals involve shorter quarantine periods for close contacts of Covid-19 under high and extreme pressure on health systems and society, as well as testing with rapid antigenic tests to free patients from the disease. quarantine.
Mr Varadkar said there were “cautious grounds for optimism” that the impact of the Omicron variant might be “less severe”.
Mr Varadkar said the high level of immunity in the country due to the high levels of vaccination was likely one of the reasons.
A record number of daily cases has been repeatedly recorded in recent weeks due to the highly transmissible variant of Omicron.
The number of Covid patients in hospital topped 1,000 this week – the first time since February 2021 – but the number in intensive care has remained relatively stable.
Despite this, Mr Varadkar said the spate of Omicron variant cases probably hasn’t peaked yet.
On easing restrictions, the Tánaiste said this would happen in stages rather than “all at once”.
Should the Omicron wave peak in the coming weeks, the government would be open to the possibility of easing restrictions in February, he said.
“We are probably the only country in Europe where for two years we have not been able to stay in a bar or go to your office if you wish,” he said.
Mr Varadkar added that he did not want Ireland to be an exception in terms of restrictions for “the third summer” in a row.
Long term plan
Separately, immunology professor Paul Moynagh said there must be a long-term plan to deal with Covid-19.
The high level of virus in the community, combined with the success of the vaccination and booster programs, resulted in a “wall of immunity”.
However, speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, he warned that this immunity could wear off over time, which is why a long-term plan was needed.
While officially half a million cases had been identified in the past eight weeks, and one million cases were reached this week, in reality the actual figure was more likely to be 1.5 million, added Professor Moynagh.
The virus would now have a hard time finding new people to infect, he said.
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