The chair of the Expert Advisory Group says local Covid-19 restrictions would be a realistic response if the spread of the virus continues rising.
As the latest statistics show young people make up the majority of new cases, all 23 cases last night are aged under 45.
Health officials say the next week will show the impact opening pubs that serve food and hairdressers has had.
"We do want people to try to get back to some semblance of normality."
"So we've a better infrastructure now from a laboratory, public health and contact tracing perspective."
"We certainly would hope not to be having to impose any national level restrictions."
Local Restrictions Are "Realistic And Pragmatic"
However he says restrictions on a local level would be, "realistic and pragmatic."
"If we do identify clusters of the nature that we've seen over the last 24 to 48 hours - they can be targeted quickly."
"So people can be tested, contacts can be isolated and that's really what we want to be in a position to do very quickly."
"We want to get to a number that's as close to zero as possible, if not zero."
When you’re using public transport, please wear a face covering #SARSCoV2 #COVID19 #StaySafe #StayTheCourse pic.twitter.com/KaUMh8tH0x
— Cillian De Gascun (@CillianDeGascun) June 25, 2020
Current Covid-19 Spread Levels Cannot Continue
All of the 23 new cases announced last night were under the age of 45.
While 77% of them were under the age of 25.
Health officials said it marks a “clear change” in the way the virus is spreading.
Dr. Ronan Glynn, the country's acting Chief Medical Officer says we can't live like we did back in January.
So if that happens, he says, "It is only a matter of time before we are facing a significant problem with this disease."
“We have got cases in a number of locations around the country linked to clusters."
"That demands a huge amount of resources."
"If that replicates itself over the coming days and weeks, we will be back in a situation we would be very concerned about.”
