Kenneth Fox
A number of leading health commentators say we are now experiencing a summer wave of Covid 19.
Yesterday, there was 537 people in hospital with the virus, 27 of whom are in intensive care units.
The INMO wants a return to mandatory mask wearing on public transport.
Professor of Health Systems at DCU Anthony Staines, says we're 'flying blind' here compared to the UK, where blood tests are carried out regularly to find out the positivity rate in the community.
"We have a lot of information from the UK that we don't have the information from Ireland, and we should have.
"While we do often see trends from there emerge over here, we don't know if we are behind or ahead of them. We are flying blind at the moment."
It comes as the chief medical officer warned that hospitals are under 'increased pressure' from Covid-19.
In a letter sent to the government last week, Dr Tony Holohan outlined the continued threat of the virus.
At the time there were 355 people in hospital with Covid, however yesterday that number stood at 515.
Speaking to Newstalk, Infectious diseases expert Dr Jack Lambert says it is expected that case numbers will fluctuate at certain times.
"We are going to have expect increases in numbers due to the seasonality of Covid moving forward.
"We have seen it in other countries, there are periods where the numbers drop off and periods when new strains come into the country and increase again."
He said this is what we are going to be living with for years and years and that is something that is expected.
