Speaking on An tSeachtain le Máirín Ní Ghadhra on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta today, Mr Martin said the Government had learned from the Midlands lockdown in Kildare, Offaly and Laois, and would do what was necessary.
It comes as Ireland's acting chief medical officer has warned that infections will double in the capital over the next two weeks if immediate action is not taken, as more than half of yesterday’s 211 new cases of the virus were confirmed there.
Ireland's 14 day incidence rate of the virus per 100,000 people has increased by more than a third in the past seven days, with new figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control putting the country's average at 40.6, up from 29.6 last Saturday.
The Taoiseach said the Government would receive advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) on Tuesday and a decision would follow.
“We’ll get advice from NPHET on Tuesday and we’ll have to weigh their advice... the most important thing about Dublin is how to get to grips with the virus to lower the number of cases and to put pressure on the virus.
We won’t be afraid to implement measures specifically in Dublin, if that’s the way forward... We did that in Kildare, Offaly and Laois.
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“We won’t be afraid to implement measures specifically in Dublin, if that’s the way forward... We did that in Kildare, Offaly and Laois... I know that some counties have low number of cases, and I understand that argument, that there are differences and so the same restrictions shouldn’t apply.”
Mr Martin said the Government’s new plan for living with Covid-19 over the next six months, set to be published next week, would assess restrictions on this county-by-country basis.
“The new plan has flexibility from that side – we can assess the situation from county to county. The very highest level of restrictions is to implement measures on a national basis,” he said.
The Taoiseach added that the Government understood the need to be cognisant of the mental health impact of lockdown measures.
“We know from the research that the situation with the virus has had a terrible impact on physical and mental health, and we need to focus on that... so we’re considering people’s lifestyles, and we’re looking at that in terms of sport and culture, we have to make exceptions and tailored plans for those sectors in this country.”
Chains of transmission
It comes as acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn has said that the number of Covid-19 cases in Dublin could double over the next two weeks and has urged the people of Dublin to break the “chains of transmission”.
Dr Glynn said the disease is growing at approximately four per cent per day in the capital and that infections will double if immediate action is not taken.
“We are now reporting an average of 104 new cases each day in Dublin, and over the past fortnight alone, we’ve reported 1,055 cases in Dublin,” he said.
“The disease is growing at approximately four per cent per day in Dublin and if nothing were to change, we would expect to see the number of new cases in Dublin double over the next fourteen days.”
Dr Glynn said transmission in households was a concern: “We are seeing lots of cases clustered in households and these clusters are spread all across Dublin city and county.
“The vast majority of cases in Dublin are in younger people. Fortunately, admissions to hospitals and critical care units remain low, and the proportion of cases which cannot be linked to other cases is similar to that seen in the rest of the country.”
