The Taoiseach has warned that we are in still in the “early days” of the COVID-19 outbreak, with the expected surge in cases still to come.
Leo Varadkar was speaking after the number of confirmed cases in the Republic rose to 3,849.
Meanwhile, 13 more COVID-19 patients have died brining the death toll here to 98.
He said a decision on whether to extend, relax or refine the national restrictions will be made towards the end of next week.
Tony Holohan suggesting this evening that the restrictions could be in place for quite a while longer than the 12th of April
— Seán Defoe (@SeanDefoe) April 2, 2020
Meanwhile, he said Ireland’s hospitals are well-placed to respond to the surge in cases when it comes.
“There are 109 patients in ICU with COVID-19,” he said.
“We have capacity to ventilate about 1,200 patients at any given one time. We have a lot of capacity to deal with the surge when it comes. More ventilators are on the way.”
Mr Varadkar was speaking after a meeting of Cabinet via video link this afternoon.
He said ministers used the “very short” meeting to approve plans to reassign Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) to other parts of the public service to free up frontline workers for the response.
They also approved an indemnity for private hospitals and a new lab, “which will be carrying out testing for us in the near future.”
An Taoiseach @LeoVaradkar,
"We are facing a public health emergency which is leading to an economic recession. We will get through this, in order to stop the spread of this virus, we have put our economy to sleep. We are already preparing for the recovery."#COVID19ireland
— MerrionStreet.ie (@merrionstreet) April 2, 2020
He noted that the economic situation is “very bad” and insisted the aim over the next couple of months will be to avoid another era of uncertainty.
Live register figures, released this afternoon, revealed that the number of people receiving some form of State support is now over 500,000.
Meanwhile, according to the Exchequer returns for the first quarter of this year, the country has spent €1.1bn more than planned and taken in €800m less than planned in taxes.
"The economic picture is very bad, we have experienced a sharp, sudden, unexpected shock to our economy. There are half a million people on the live register. Tax receipts are down substantially in March, fall further in April."
“It looks like it is going to be a world recession, not just a recession in Ireland and as an island that is very much connected to the world, a world recession will impact on us as well,” he said.
“But the objective absolutely is to avoid another era of recession in Ireland.”
Meanwhile, a total of 36 COVID-patients have now died in the North, bringing the total on the island of Ireland to 134.
The 774 confirmed cases in the North brings the total on the island to 4,623.
