Health officials are warning that the rate of COVID-19 in Dublin could double every two weeks if we don’t act now to stop it.

The National Public Health Emergency Team will meet today to discuss the situation in Dublin and Limerick after the acting Medical Officer said he was 'very concerned' with the numbers.

Dr Ronan Glynn said the cases in in the capital are largely linked to transmission in the home and warned that gatherings such as communions, parties and christenings “need to be stopped” for the coming weeks.

"Act now"

Meanwhile the Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group Philip Nolan said it is essential people in Dublin and Limerick do everything they can to prevent further spread.

“The disease appears to be a growing on average around 5% per day in Dublin,” he said.

“Its reproduction number in Dublin appears to be around 1.4. If we don’t act now to reduce our contacts and to be much more careful in how we manage our essential contacts, the number of cases in Dublin would double every 14 days or so.”

He said the virus in much of the rest of the country is relatively stable.

“That growth in Dublin is occurring, not as quickly as it has in other circumstances, but quickly enough to give us concern that cases numbers will grow too high unless each and every one of us in Dublin takes measures to control transmission of the virus,” he said.

Dr Colm Henry at the daily COVID-19 briefing in the Department of Health, 05-06-2020. Image: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews

Speaking at a HSE briefing this afternoon, the HSE Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry said the 14-day incidence rate of the virus now stands at 71 per 100,000 in Dublin and 60 per 100,000 in Limerick.

He said action needs to be taken to slow the spread between households - but there is no appetite for a lockdown in Dublin or Limerick.

“Measures such as reducing the number of visitors or reducing the interaction between households are the kinds of measures people might consider, short of a lockdown which nobody wants to see," he said.

File photo of the acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn, 02-09-2020. Image: Sam Boal/RollingNews

Dr Glynn said NPHET would consider the data on a national level before examining a number of other issues – including different types of testing and potential changes to isolation times for international travel.

He said yesterday’s extension of national restrictions was necessary while the figures continue to rise.

“They have stabilised things with the exception really of Dublin and Limerick,” he said.

“But there is a message here and it goes back to a common message I suppose over many weeks and months, which is we want people to be able to socialise; we want people to be able to get outdoors and play sport,” he said.

COVID-19

Officials announced 84 new confirmed cases of the virus in the Republic last night and three further deaths.

It takes the death toll to 1,781 and the total number of confirmed cases to 30,164.

There were 50 COVID-19 patients in hospital last night with six in intensive care.

Of the 71,910 tests carried out in the past week. 1.6% have come back positive.