"We are facing a very serious situation," Robin Swann
Robin Swann spelt out today (Thursday) the stark concerns facing Northern Ireland over the spread of coronavirus and warned "further difficult decisions" were necessary.
Speaking to the Health Committee he highlighted "an alarming increase" in the number of covid cases.
It followed a bleak overview from the Health Minister yesterday during a media briefing.
He told MLAs today: "We are facing a very serious situation.
"If the current trends do not change, if attitudes to this virus do not toughen, in six weeks' time our hospital inpatient numbers will exceed those witnessed during the first wave - and that isn't even the worst-case scenario.''
Mr Swann said since restrictions were introduced in the Ballymena and BT43 area - which were later extended across the region as a whole - cases have dropped by around 50%, while the Belfast rate has also slowed.
He said there is currently sustained transmission of Covid-19 in the community in the Derry and Strabane council area, adding "to be frank'' they had not expected those dramatic rises.
"We have further recommendations going to the Executive this afternoon for specifics in that area... I expect there will be further announcements later on today on the back of our recommendations,'' he said.
Sinn Fein MLA Pat Sheehan put to the health minister that there is a Covid service, but not a health service unless you have an immediate life-threatening condition.
"When can we expect normal service to be resumed?'' he asked.
Mr Swann responded, saying it is not possible to give a date until Covid-19 has gone away.
But he said they are trying to open up as many services as possible.
Chief medical officer Dr Michael McBride warned that the health service is not likely to be "business as usual for many, many months... until such times as we have better control on the virus''.
He also described the experience of a seriously ill Covid-19 patient, saying it is "difficult for people to imagine what it's like to be fighting for your breath''.
"You've got a mask tightly fitted over your face which many people find quite claustrophobic,'' he said.
"It's a bit like facing into a wind tunnel, you've got this air coming at high pressure forcing air into your airways, it's a very unpleasant experience.
"What you know as a patient sitting there is it's the difference between you keeping well and staying well, and perhaps ending up needing to be transferred into intensive care.
"Then comes the conversation that has to be had with those individuals, that once they are ventilated they might never wake up again, it may not ever be possible to take them off the ventilator.
"It's a very, very scary experience, and when individuals are paralysed and ventilated, they don't know whether they are going to wake up again, and their relatives don't know if they are going to wake up again, and sadly for too many, they don't.''
SDLP MLA Colin McGrath joined the meeting by video call after going into self-isolation following a notification via the Stop Covid NI app that he had been in contact with a positive case of Covid-19.
Meanwhile, the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) said Covid-19 related deaths have accounted for 10.9% of deaths in the region over six months.
The data relates to the 875 Covid-19 related deaths in the region in the last six months.
The figures show that males had a "significantly higher'' rate of death linked to Covid-19 - 69.9 deaths per 100,000 of the male population, compared with 45.8 deaths per 100,000 females.