Taoiseach faces criticism for dismissing mandatory mask-wearing

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has drawn sharp criticism for dismissing mandatory mask-wearing to prevent the current Covid-19 wave as new figures showed the worst March for hospital overcrowding since 2006.

Mr Martin rejected a joint call from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine for Government action to curb the spread of the virus in hospitals to help staff exhausted from dealing with multiple waves of the disease.

He said the public health view was that the BA.2 Omicron variant, while not as virulent as past strains, was so transmissible it was “almost impossible” to stop transmission.

The two groups representing hospital workers called for mask-wearing indoors and working from home to be reintroduced.

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Dublin City University professor of immunology Christine Loscher said Mr Martin's remarks that mandatory mask-wearing would not change the trajectory of the Covid-19 wave sent "a really bad message to the public that there is nothing that they can do to stop what's happening".

‘Very surprising’ comments

His comments were “very surprising”, she said, when the Government had advised on mask-wearing earlier in the pandemic to slow transmission and prevent the hospital system being overwhelmed.

“The public need to get a very clear message that there are things that we can do to reduce transmission and our risk of Covid-19; they are all the things we have done before,” she said.

The INMO said last month was the worst March for overcrowding since the union began counting patients on trolleys 16 years ago.

More than 11,000 patients have been without a hospital bed during the month of March with University Hospital Limerick being the most overcrowded with 1,671 patients on trolleys followed by University Hospital Galway with 947 patients.

A further 11,741 Covid-19 infections were reported yesterday, while there were 1,535 people in hospital with the disease, down 75 on the previous day.