The Chief Medical Officer has given his strongest indication yet that COVID-19 restrictions won't be lifted next week.

The National Public Health Emergency Team is due to issue its advice on easing restrictions to Government tomorrow.

Last night, Dr Tony Holohan again warned that, as things stand, he wouldn't be advising anything be lifted next week.

Restrictions

Officials believe there are still too many patients in intensive care to ease restrictions – as the health system could come under intense pressure if the numbers rose quickly.

“I don’t anticipate a significant additional change over the course of the next number of days but it is something we have to keep monitoring and we have to keep that effort up for as long as we can,” he said.

“We are seeing falls in relation to the indicators that we are talking about but the most sensitive of the indicators that we are talking about relate to hospitalisations and in particular to intensive care.”

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan at the daily COVID-19 briefing at the Department of Health, 29-04-2020. Image: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews

He said officials would wait until tomorrow to make a call but warned, “I don't see the kind of circumstances that will allow us - certainly today - [to] think we'll be in a position to recommend an easing of restrictions.”

“If we were to ease restrictions at this moment in time today, we could potentially find that we would run into difficulties sooner, if we were to see an increase in ICU admissions,” he said.

Deaths

Dr Holohan announced the deaths of 31 more people with COVID-19 in Ireland last night, taking the death toll over the past two months to 1,190.

Meanwhile, the 376 new confirmed cases announced last night take the national total over 20,000.

There are now 129 patients in intensive care in Ireland. 173 people have been discharged alive from ICUs, while there have been 54 deaths in intensive care.

Over 600 people have died from Covid-19 in long-term residential care facilities since the beginning of the year.

The total includes those who were tested for the disease, and people who were listed as probable deaths related to coronavirus.

Yesterday, the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Government would only ease restrictions when they are told it is “safe to do so” by health officials.