Simon Harris: 'Restrictions that are in place are not going to be lifted tomorrow'
Health Minister Simon Harris has made clear restrictions will not be lifted tomorrow and will be extended.
Speaking with PJ and Jim on Classic Hits at 9am this morning, Mr Harris said: “To be blunt and honest with people, the restrictions that are in place are not going to be lifted tomorrow, we're going to have to keep at it.”
He added: "What we're hoping to be able to do is show people what the journey looks like....if we keep at this for another couple of weeks, where does it bring us, what does success look like?".
He also said: "The virus is probably going to be here for a long time, but we need to get to a point where your Mum can see the Grandkids again even if the virus still is in Ireland."
The Minister went on to say that we can save thousands more lives than our doctors can and that if we get things wrong this weekend, we could go back to a very dark place.
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has announced further measures to protect and support Direct Provision residents during the Covid-19 crisis.
These new measures will further support offsite self-isolation for residents, where required.
It will also see the introduction of a national clinical telephone service, which will provide public health advice to centre management to help them to better support their residents at this time.
These measures are additional to the 650 new beds announced by the Ministers on 31st March.
“We have now procured three additional facilities for offsite self-isolation meaning there can be dedicated facilities in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Dundalk. This brings our total self-isolation capacity to 299 rooms at this time,” Mr Flanagan said.
Residents staying in self-isolation facilities will have their own bedroom and their own bathroom. The facility in Dublin opened on Monday (6 April) and the three other facilities will be open by the end of this week, Mr Flanagan said.
