Coronavirus: Families may be able to hug and kiss by early June, says virus doctor

Families may be able to hug and kiss one another by early June through the expansion of family units, the director of the national virus reference laboratory Dr Cillian de Gascun has said.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said on Friday that should the progress in containing the coronavirus continue, the Government would begin easing restrictions on May 18th as part of a roadmap of five phases, three weeks apart, each dependent on the success of the previous.

However, while information has been made available on how far people will be able to travel, the re-opening of schools, crèches, restaurants and pubs and numbers that will be able to gather in groups, there has been less clarity around when family members will be able to safely embrace one another.

Speaking with Brendan O'Connor on RTÉ Radio 1, Dr de Gascun said he hoped to see the family unit expanding as part of the second phase of the roadmap which is set to begin on June 8th.

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“If the first set of changes are made and we don’t see any significant changes in the numbers or pattern of the circulation of the virus in the community, then we can move to the second wave changes… and your natural next step then is to expand the family unit,” said Dr de Gascun.

He underlined that the roadmap “wasn’t intended to be definitive” but to offer people an “indication” of how restrictions may be lifted over the coming weeks and months.

“We want people to stay with us on this, we need people to stay the course, so therefore we’re trying to give them as much information as possible… but this is a framework document.”

On nursing homes, Dr de Gascún said that while no decision had been made yet regarding a second screening plan of residential homes it was being considered. He said new data now suggested that asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission could account for a "significant proportion" of cases across Ireland, particularly in nursing homes.

“We have identified healthcare workers and patients who were asymptomatic but their test has detected the presence of the virus. So that certainly has an impact on what we need to do from a control measure in the coming weeks and months.”

Dr de Gascún dismissed claims that the decision not to lift more restrictions this week was based on a lack of testing, saying testing people was not going to change the numbers currently in hospital or intensive care.

Trying to reach 100,000 tests per week is “missing the point”, he said, adding that testing across hospitals was already being done. The focus now is on mapping the spread of the virus in the community, even among those who are self-isolating, and bringing the turnaround for testing and results to three days, he said.

Dr de Gascún said the primary concern over the past eight weeks had been the health emergency but that now, as numbers begin to fall, greater emphasis should be placed on concerns around the social and economic implications of keeping the State under lockdown.

He said he did not feel there had been any “confrontation” between the Government and health experts around the lifting of restrictions and that it was the role of political leaders to make the final decision on re-opening the country.