The advice that NPHET gave the Government on local lockdown

The National Public Health Emergency Team advised the Government to introduce the new restrictions in Offaly, Laois and Kildare due to its concern that there is “a real risk that this could spread much more widely in the community in the coming days and weeks”.

NPHET acknowledged that are currently few cases related to community transmission in Offaly, Laois and Kildare.

However, it said: “… given the scale of the current outbreaks, there is now a significant volume of infection in the region of Kildare, Laois and Offaly, and a real risk that this could spread much more widely in the community in the coming days and weeks.”

NPHET’s entire letter, which can be read HERE is predicated on county statistics and on a geographical analysis of COVID on a county basis only.

It makes no reference to areas within the counties of Kildare, Offaly and Laois or that it had given any consideration to restrictions being imposed in manners other than on whole-county-basis.

The letter written on Friday says that there had been 150 new cases in the last 14 days in Kildare (an incidence of 61.6 per 100,000); 55 in Laois (an incidence of 62.6 per 100,000) and 36 in Offaly (an incidence of 64.9 per 100,000).

It says 75% of all cases in Kildare in the past 14 days were under the age of 45; 93% in Laois and 65% in Offaly.

It acknowledges too that in the three counties there have been multiple outbreaks in what it describes as “workplaces and residential institutions”.