HEALTH Minister Simon Harris has said officials who incorrectly stated that a HSE-issued letter about the confirmed Covid-19 case in Ireland was a fake, “acted in good faith”.

Mr Harris was responding to earlier denials from the HSE and the Department of Health about a letter issued to those who attended a band practice at the weekend asking them to self-isolate until Sunday, March 15.

The HSE has written to a number of people who attended the band practice and asked them to self-isolate until Sunday March 15.

The first confirmed case of coronavirus attended the band practice before being diagnosed, and the HSE has issued the letter to the people who attended the same practice to prevent the possible spread of infection.

The letter only applies to the people who attended the session with the patient who has now tested positive for the illness, and not people who attended other practice sessions.

Those who are self-isolating will now be monitored by public health officials over the next two weeks, in a similar way to the students and staff of the school which has been closed.

The HSE initially told journalists on Tuesday that this letter was a fake and the Department of Health tweeted that it was aware of fake letters circulating. The tweet has since been deleted.

Speaking at Government Buildings Mr Harris said there had been a lot of misinformation circulating on social media including a letter pretending to be from a supermarket and screengrabs of a fake RTE News doctored.

He said the HSE letter issued to members who attended the band practice was real.

“It arises from the contact tracing in relation to the one person we have in our country who has been diagnosed with Covid-19,” he said.

He said that officials “acted in good faith in responding to what was a very dynamic situation” when asked about the earlier denials.

He continued: “The important thing not to be lost here is the public information here, which is that the letter is true, and that the precautionary measures to be taken have now been put in place.”

He said Health officials are “working flat-out” and that they are “answering questions and queries in good faith. On this occasion that good faith turned out not to be true. That has been quickly rectified and clarified by me as Minister for Health."

He declined to say any officials at the centre of the controversy would be reprimanded or sanctioned.

Mr Harris was speaking after a Cabinet meeting earlier where it was agreed to set up a Cabinet sub-committee, a stakeholder forum to engage with civic society and to identify, with the Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe, areas of the health service that may need extra funding.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said there is a moderate to high risk of more cases emerging and that the government is pursuing a policy of containment. "There will be no panic but there will also be no complacency," he said.

He said there was no requirement for emergency legislation at this stage but that this would be kept under review.

Mr Harris stressed that 81pc cases of Covid-19 diagnosed in China were deemed to be mild, according to WHO figures and that this meant the “overwhelming number of cases diagnosed so far are mild” and would not require hospitalisation.

Online Editors