'We have one chance to get this right' - Three Lords Mayor call for national lockdown
The lords mayor of three Irish cities have united to call for a nationwide lockdown.
Lord Mayor of Cork, Councillor John Sheehan, a GP with more than 30-years' experience, said the call from the Lord Mayors of Cork, Galway and Dublin, is prompted in part by events over the weekend which saw thousands of people flocking to beaches and beauty spots, and in many cases flouting public health guidelines on social distancing in a bid to minimise the spread of the coronavirus..
But the Fianna Fáil councillor said it has also been prompted by concerns about the backlog in Covid-19 testing — with some 40,000 people awaiting a test, with the wait now at up to five days.
The HSE has more than 30 testing centres in place and expects to significantly ramp up the rate of testing over the coming days.
But Mr Sheehan said the scale of the challenge is unprecedented, with testing rates over the coming days expected to reach the same rate of tests for flu in an average flu season.
"The State has one chance to get its response to the Covid-19 crisis right. We have to get ahead of this," he said.
"The HSE has been fantastic but there is a significant backlog in testing —underlining the scale of the challenge facing the health service.
The only way to address this now is to introduce an immediate lockdown.
"It will have significant economic implications and significant social implications. It is not a decision that we take lightly. But what we don’t want to see, as we wait for those tests to be done, is a huge spike in cases."
A number of food outlets across the country are closing this evening until further notice.
Nando's, Subway, Starbucks, Beshoff Bros and Krispy Kreme have all decided to shut.
The closures come as McDonald's announced last night it will also be shutting its stores from today.
Cllr Sheehan said: "We are already in semi lock-down as it is. We have seen closures of McDonald’s restaurants, of Bank of Ireland branches, and many other businesses but if this Government introduces this immediate lockdown now, it will take the pressure off making the decision from remaining businesses and will give some a sense of relief that we are in it now and just need to get on with.
"This will be hard and challenging but we have one chance to get this right," he said.
Under a national lockdown, movement of the public would be severely restricted with exceptions made only for essential trips outside the home for food, medicines or medical treatment.
The Taoiseach has said the Government will base any decisions on a possible lockdown on medical advice from the National Public Health Emergency Management Team, and not on what is trending on Twitter.
An update is expected this evening.
[snippet1]987600[/snippet1]
