Covid figures should be released weekly instead of daily
The Labour leader Alan Kelly has backed the call from a number of senior doctors to move from issuing Covid figures daily to weekly.
Deputy Kelly said:
“We are now the only country in Europe making daily announcements about Covid figures. The daily release of figures is causing great anxiety to many people. If we are forced to live with the virus for a some time to come then we cannot continue to obsess over the number of daily cases.
“I agree with Dr Maitiu O Tuathail the former president of the National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP) when he said that the daily number of cases is irrelevant.
“We need to move to a system whereby we have a comprehensive weekly briefing identifying the weekly trend in the virus which is far more important. People are being bombarded with a lot of information at the moment and this is one way of ensuring that they do not become overwhelmed and stop listening to public health advice.