The health minister said stricter restrictions would continue in the counties in December

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has suggested that tighter restrictions may be imposed at the local level in December to get out of the Level 5 restrictions imposed nationwide.

Level 5 restrictions were imposed for six weeks from midnight on Wednesday as part of efforts to reduce the country’s Covid spread.

At the same time, the Minister said that he intended to bring Ireland under Level 3 restrictions from December 1st. However, strict restrictions will be re-imposed in the counties.

He said the government and the health department would only relax the restrictions based on various factors.

He noted the reluctance of the people to comply with the Level 5 regulations and said that people should be vigilant to reduce the number of Covid cases.

Strict restrictions have been imposed as part of the fight against Covid. If restrictions are not put in place now, things will go out of hand. More concessions will be granted in December as the Covid expansion slows.

He said the HSE had not informed the health department regarding its decision of asking the Covid victims itself to inform the their contacts and that such incidents must be reported to the government.

At the same time, he added that contact tracing teams are growing very fast in the face of the daily escalation of Covid cases.

The Minister said that HSE currently has the capacity to handle 1500 Covid victims per day and HSE has informed that it has adequate staff.

He said the HSE and the government were working day and night in the fight against Covid and therefore the people should be vigilant and co-operate with the regulations.