Many GPs want indoor reopening delayed by several weeks over Delta variant concerns - Nphet member

The former president of the Irish College of General Practitioners said it was now a race against the clock to vaccinate as many people as possible to protect them from the Delta variant and said, “an additional two or three weeks would make a substantial difference”.

The Nphet member said this would allow for another million vaccinations to be administered before the “riskiest part” of reopening, indoor dining.

“Another three weeks would give us another million doses, which would take us from 3.5m to 4.5m doses, which would make a really substantial difference. At this point, it is all about getting vaccines in arms and an additional two or three weeks would make a very substantial difference,” Dr Favier said on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

Her comments come after the Taoiseach told Independent.ie the faster spreading Delta variant of the virus posed a threat to the planned July 5 indoor hospitality reopening target, while publicans and restaurateurs said a few days was not enough notice for them to change their plans.

HSE Mid-West has also written to bishops in the region asking them to delay communions and confirmations planned form July 5 over a spike in cases in the region.

Dr Favier said the Government will make the decisions and “many variables” will bring it to that decision.

“The feeling on the ground, and this would be the feeling of many General Practitioners, is that vaccination saves lives. If it’s two to three more weeks so that we can prevent ever having our health service in the same circumstances it was back in January, or ever having that many deaths again or ever going into another lockdown, I think the sentiment out there would be that we would delay.

“The reason these are the final steps of opening up are because they are the riskiest. It’s indoors and closed spaces, it’s a lack of ventilation,” Dr Favier said.

Nphet will meet next week to decide what advice to give to Government, with next Wednesday the most likely date for this meeting.

Dr Favier said: “If we are in the same position next week as we are today, it will be an easier decision but if the numbers continue to deteriorate, that will be problematic.”

The Nphet member also said Ireland is “likely” to have another wave of infections but that this may not translate to disease from Covid-19 as the previous waves have.

“This is a concern now, people understand the Delta variant is more infectious and the ECDC have said that Europe will have 90pc Delta variant by the end of August. We are already seeing 20pc here and 50pc in Northern Ireland, so [it’s] a concern in terms of increasing numbers,” Dr Favier said.

“If we have a new wave, and unfortunately we are likely to, there is going to be a difference. The difference will be between infection and disease. Infection in the first wave, particularly in our older population, largely equated with disease, sometimes serious disease and on some occasions death, unfortunately.

“Because our older populations are vaccinated, despite some gaps in the rollout - people are getting infected but there’s less disease and hospitalisation. However, that’s very dependent on numbers. We may manage 1,000 cases like that but would we manage 6,000 or 10,000 cases like that? Inevitably some of those young people are going to get sick and unfortunately, we might have deaths. We will also have things like long Covid illness.

“Vaccination is the answer, it’s the pushback against infection and we need more time to vaccinate, so it’s a balance,” the GP said.

Dr Favier said numbers of Covid cases in Cork, where she is a GP, are low but said GPs are not privy to the same levels of information as before due to the cyberattack on the HSE.

“What we are seeing, unfortunately, is people presenting to walk-in test centres with symptoms, and in some cases, particularly in Dublin, after work,” Dr Favier said.

The Nphet member said there has been a significant uptick in Covid cases in Athlone and Waterford, likely due to the Delta variant. Dr Favier said there was some concern about behaviour, saying solidarity is what has brought Ireland so far but, “we just need to be careful now over the next few weeks”.

Dr Favier said that roughly one third of the 60-69 year-olds have had just one dose of a vaccine and added: “We know that this variant requires two vaccine doses to be effective, so we would really remind people to get their second dose”.