Christmas flights are suspicious because Covid’s travel risk is “just too high”

Christmas homecoming around the country’s airport is now questionable, as Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tony Holohan warned that Covid-19’s risk of traveling abroad is still “very serious” at this time.

Dr. Holohan also warned parents about the risk of children from different families gathering for the Halloween party.

Asked about returning home for Christmas and families from different countries reuniting during the holiday season, he said no special consideration had been given by his team.

“Our advice is that the risk of non-essential travel out of the country is simply too high at this time.”

The number of travel-related Covid-19 cases here is currently very low and the government has promised to enter the EU signaling system for traveling within Europe. However, details about how it works here remain unclear, especially in relation to testing.

Asked about the Halloween party, he said, “These things will be impossible this year.”

It’s coming as Dublin Airport authorities raise the issue of Christmas homecoming at the Oireachtas Transport Commission today.

“We want to safely welcome our loved ones and allow people living here who have never seen an overseas family to meet again,” demanding a pre-departure testing system.

Yesterday, Covid-19 killed five more and 720 more. This indicates that some control over the spread of the virus may have returned since last week, when the number of cases per day exceeded 1,000.

But Dr. Holohan said it was premature to say “we were around the corner.”

“We can never conclude that there is a tendency due to the small number of cases,” he said.

So far this month, there have been 79 Covid-related deaths and 32 were residents of nursing homes. This is in contrast to the deaths of 35 in September and 5 in August.

Of the new cases yesterday, 228 were Dublin, 130 were Cork, 47 were Galway, 31 were Meath, and 27 were Limerick. The remaining 257 cases have spread to another 20 counties.

As of 2:00 pm today, the number of Covid-19 patients admitted has decreased slightly to 341, 38 of whom are in the intensive care unit.

With 29 additional hospitalizations in the last 24 hours, the pattern of the second phase of the virus appears to be a good flow of patients with a significant number of patients discharged.

Elderly patients are still at high risk of being hospitalized.

Cavan had the highest incidence for 14 days, but this is declining. This is followed by Meath, Sligo, Westmeath, Galway, Monaghan, Cork and Donegal.

The lowest rates are Tipperary, Wicklow and Kilkenny.

Dr. Holohan said there was evidence that he had stabilized the spread of Covid-19 when Level 3 was implemented, but did not push it down.

This is important because if the case rises to a high level again (when this lockdown ends), it means that you may need to demand the strictest limits to bring it back into control.

Asked about HSE’s testing and tracking system, Dr. Holohan was extremely robust despite the recent catastrophe, which led to 2,000 people who found that the virus had to perform its own tracking. Insisted that there was.

Asked about a recent study showing that only 55pc would be vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine if available, he did not choose to vaccinate a significant number of people vulnerable to the virus. If so, he said it would be a concern.

When asked about plans to deploy the vaccine if a spokeswoman from the Ministry of Health was approved, the Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy Group was convened. Currently, it is held every three weeks. The group is currently developing a Covid-19 vaccination program plan. This includes the development of communication campaigns that will be launched prior to the vaccination program.

Irish Independent