Kildare Chamber makes plea for small businesses 'at breaking point'
Co Kildare Chamber has made a special plea to NPHET to lift small businesses out of lockdown because cafes, restaurants and pubs serving food are "at breaking point."
The Acting Chief Medical Officer said yesterday that while the coronavirus situation is improving in Kildare, the number of cases has not stabilised to a point to enable a lifting of restrictions at this point.
Dr Ronan Glynn said that the measures in place in Co Kildare to slow the spread of Covid-19 "are having precisely the effect we want".
However Co Kildare Chamber said it was very disappointed at the continuation of the lockdown despite low case numbers.
A spokesperson said: "We were really encouraged by the very low number again for Kildare, but now very disappointed at the latest comments from NPHET who have indicated they want to keep the county in lockdown.
"We are urging at a very minimum that Government must lift the restrictions imposed on cafes, restaurants and pubs serving food and re align those businesses with the rest of the country.
"Many businesses here are at breaking point and at the point of closure, many employees have lost their jobs, cash flow has completely dried up, creditors are getting impatient.
"We must learn how to live with this virus both as citizens and businesses until a vaccine is found."
The National Public Health Emergency Team met yesterday to review the latest trends on Covid-19 and the situation in Co Kildare, which remains under restrictions that were introduced earlier this month.
Dr Glynn said the situation will continue to be closely monitored.
There have been 93 cases of the virus reported yesterday, with seven reported in Kildare.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has previously said that while the restrictions in Co Kildare are working, the difficult question for NPHET to consider is if the infection rate has been reduced enough, as lifting restrictions could cause it to increase again.
Dr Glynn said; “We continue to see a slow growth of COVID-19 in Ireland.
“The most effective action we can take to reduce the transmission rate of this virus is to reduce our number of close contacts. If we do this and keep practicing the other safe behaviours by continuing to physical distance, avoid crowds, wash our hands, cover our coughs and sneezes, wear a face mask where appropriate and download the COVID Tracker app, we have a real chance of slowing the spread of the virus to where we want it to be.”
Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said; “The R-number is now between 1 and 1.2. While this is an improvement on what we have seen recently, it is still not where we want to be. We are still seeing growing transmission of the disease and we need to bring the R-number back below 1 if we are to effectively slow the spread of transmission."