Chief Clinical Officer of the Health Service Executive Dr Colm Henry has said Covid-19 has been “beaten off the streets of our towns and cities and into households”.

Chief Clinical Officer of the Health Service Executive Dr Colm Henry has said Covid-19 has been “beaten off the streets of our towns and cities and into households”.
Dr Colm Henry said these gains have been hard fought for and this success has been due to the efforts of every single Irish person who has played their part.
He warned that we should take great care before we “jump in and reverse” these significant gains and the HSE is advising people not to fly for non-essential travel. 
Dr Henry said he did not accept that the principle of quarantine is ineffective and it has been introduced in many European countries, the US and Canada.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he said it was unrealistic to quarantine everyone at an airport but people should be expected to self-isolate for 14 days, in recognition of the fact that they may be asymptomatic.
Dr Henry was responding to Ryanair group chief executive Michael O’Leary who has called for the removal of what he termed “ineffective quarantine measures”.
Speaking on the same programme, Mr O’Leary said that by wearing facemasks Irish people can safely “go back flying” from July.
Mr O’Leary said that imposing a quarantine from tomorrow at airports and ports is “simply political game- playing”.
He added that Ireland is emerging much more slowly from the health crisis than other European countries. 
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Yesterday, the Department of Health said nine more people had died due to Covid-19. There have been a total of 1,615 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland. 
A further 37 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 cases have been diagnosed, bringing the number of confirmed cases here to 24,735. 
Another significant drop in the number of cases of Covid-19 in hospitals has been reported overnight, with 390 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus being treated. 
That is a reduction of 111 cases, compared with the Health Service Executive figures published yesterday. 
The hospitals caring for the most cases are the Mater, Connolly and Beaumont, which are all in Dublin. 
Forty-eight patients are in intensive care units with confirmed Covid-19, along with 14 suspected cases. 
It means that the hospital system currently has 108 intensive care beds vacant, for all illnesses. 
Overall, there are 907 vacant general beds in acute hospitals. 
The HSE said Covid-19 has been virtually extinguished in the country, at this point. 
In relation to nursing homes, Dr Henry said the HSE acted on the concerns the Health Information and Quality Authority raised and every single nursing home – public and private – was contacted from the end of March onwards. 
He said no distinction was made between private and public nursing homes in the help and infection control measures provided.
An expert advisory group will look at the experience in the residential care setting and see what can be done to avoid outbreaks in the future, he said, adding there have been no outbreaks in residential settings since last week. 
Today ministers will be briefed by Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan at Government Buildings about the fight against Covid-19.
Dr Holohan is expected to give his analysis on the latest medical data, as well as brief ministers on how the Covid-19 roadmap is progressing, at the meeting. 
Afterwards, ministers will have the opportunity to raise their concerns – and a key issue is expected to be the two metre social distancing rule. 
Around 80% of cases of Covid-19 will be a mild to moderate illness, close to 14% have severe disease and around 6% are critical.
Generally, you need to be 15 minutes or more in the vicinity of an infected person and within two metres of them, to be considered at-risk, or a close contact.