Responding to the grave concern expressed this evening by the Chief Medical Officer about the deterioration in the numbers of Covid-19 cases even since Sunday last, Róisín Shortall TD, co-leader of the Social Democrats said:
“The country is in the middle of a very serious phase of the battle against the pandemic. Today’s figures are very worrying. The Government needs to take stock of where we are and redouble efforts to halt this surge.
“At the briefing this evening, the CMO outlined the steps he had taken to inform the Minister for Health of the NPHET meeting last Sunday that recommended a countrywide move to Level 5, including a call on Sunday morning in advance of the meeting.
“I am calling on the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD, to make a full statement of what he was told on Sunday morning and evening and what he did with that information.
“The country was distracted by an unseemly row between the Government and NPHET at precisely the moment when all attention should have been on responding to the surge in Covid-19 cases.”
[ENDS]
7th October 2020