A LEADING IRISH DOCTOR insists that the country is in a very positive position with regards to tackling Covid-19, stressing that lockdown measures are working well.
Dr Cliona Ni Cheallaigh, who works at St James' Hospital in Dublin, added that the expected "surge" of Covid-19 cases hasn't materialised.
However, she did stress that in order to keep the train on the tracks, so to speak, current measures need to remain in place in order to slow the spread of the virus.
Dr Ni Cheallaigh told Morning Ireland on RTE Radio One: "I was on a call with all the infectious disease experts from across Ireland and one after another, as each person reported from their hospital, they were saying they handn't seen the surge they expected, that the measures are working, and it's just a fantastic position to be in.
"We had been very sacred that we would be completely overwhelmed, and that hasn't happened yet.
"But social distancing and all the measures need to continue, we don't have a vaccine, we don't have a treatment for the infection, all we have is keeping people apart from each other.
"It's a bit like putting food colouring into a bath, you'll have huge pool of water that's all coloured with the food colouring, whereas if you have the water in lots of separate drinking glasses, that food colouring will be limited to that particular glass.
"It creates a much smaller number of cases that we can manage, so keep going Ireland!"
Dr Ni Cheallaigh went on to praise the "phenomenal" response from her hospital, and insisted that they were confident they could handle an influx of cases.
"It's absolutely phenomenal. You couldn't have believed that it would happen, but the hospital has just changed how it works, the staff have changed how they work, we have a huge increase in the number of ICU beds if we need them, and we're able to cope. It's just phenomenal," she added.
