Tag Archives: COVID-19

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the Minister for Health Simon Harris at a press conference at Government Buildings this evening

This evening.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the Minister for Health Simon Harris are holding a press conference at Government Buildings to speak about the new public private partnership with private healthcare providers in response to Covid-19.

During the press conference, Hugh O’Connell, of the Irish Independent, asked Mr Varadkar if he could indicate when Ireland might “start to return to normality”.

Mr Varadkar said he didn’t know.

The question follows Dr Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer for England, saying yesterday that normal life will not likely resume in the UK for at least six months.

In his response, Mr Varadkar said:

“To be honest with you, we don’t know for sure. You know, this is a new virus and you can only be so much of an expert on a virus that’s only been known to the world for three or four months and some of the estimations and assumptions we might have had two or three weeks ago are different now and they may be different again in two or three weeks again.

“What is going to happen this evening is Philip Nolan, who’s heading up our group on modelling, is going to speak at the press conference tonight with the chief medical officer [Tony Holohan] and the idea is that every week or so the model will be updated and that will be shared with the public because we want to be as transparent as possible.

“But in being transparent we need people to understand that by putting information out there, and we want to put all the information out there, it may turn out to be incorrect and you’ll just have to bear with us on that in many ways or it may change over time.

“Certainly what the UK is talking about and I think what a lot of people around the world are talking about now is that there will come a point after the epidemic is peaked and the number of new cases starts falling, when we will start to ease the restrictions and then we’ll have to see what happens so we won’t be in a situation whereby I suddenly go on TV and make an address to the nation and say everything is going back to the way it was on the 11th of March.

“That’s probably not what’s going to happen. What is likely to happen is that the number of new cases will continue to rise, we’ll reach a peak, hopefully that will be in a few weeks’ time and not in a few months’ time.

“The number of new cases will start to fall and will reach the point where we can start to ease some of the restrictions and then see what happens, whether the number of cases starts to rise again or not.”

Nucleocapsid?

Meanwhile…

Later, Jennifer Bray, of The Irish Times, asked Mr Harris about the shipments of personal protective equipment (PPE) that Ireland has ordered from China.

Ms Bray asked if Ireland has any “guarantees” about the quality of the items, in light of the Netherlands recalling hundreds of thousands of masks that it received from China.

This morning, China’s Ambassador to Ireland He Xiangdong told RTÉ’s Rachael English that China would do its best.

Mr Harris said:

“In relation to the quality of the PPE coming into the country, Paul Reid [CEO of the HSE], the head of the HSE, has publicly said that any PPE purchased by the HSE needs to meet World Health Organisation standards and also will be checked on arrival.

“So it’s a job that the HSE needs to do, they’ve a duty of care to their staff and we obviously need to ensure that any PPE distributed throughout the health service meets the WHO standards and they certainly said that’s absolutely their intention and view in relation to the equipment they bought.”

Earlier: “I Think That We Will Try Our Best”

From report by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on the initial impact of Covid-19 containment measures on economic activity

This morning.

Dan O’Brien tweetz:

“The OECD’s five-pager on the economic impact of the pandemic here. All countries very badly affected. Believes Ireland will be the least affected. No detail, but large tech and pharma sectors the likely reason.”

Hmmm.

Anyone?

The five-page report can be read in full here.

From top: Covid-19 testing; Professor of Immunology and director of the Human Health Research Institute at Maynooth University Paul Moynagh

This morning.

On RTÉ’s Today with Seán O’Rourke.

Professor of Immunology and director of the Human Health Research Institute at Maynooth University Paul Moynagh told Mr O’Rourke that it’s his understanding that the HSE has purchased a number of Covid-19 antibody testing kits.

It followed UK MPs being told last Wednesday that the British public would be able to carry out Covid-19 antibody tests at home within a matter of days via finger prick tests made available from Amazon and Boots.

Asked about the tests on Wednesday evening, chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan told journalists that the Irish Department of Health, at that point, had not yet identified a serological test that could be used and that Ireland was not yet ready for that step.

Further to this, Professor Moynihan told Mr O’Rourke this morning:

“It’s my understanding, I think, the HSE has ordered some of these serological tests in. Initially, I think they should be prioritised for healthcare workers, especially, because what it tells us is is that somebody has been infected but also that somebody has generated antibodies against the virus.

“And then, presumably, you’re immune to the virus and then probably can return to work in a safe manner. I think, over time, serological tests offer us a way to go to mass testing.

“But again they need to be tested, you know you’re probably familiar with the UK, in terms of, the UK is involved in a number of these kits, but I think that’s being tested robustly both in terms of specificity, to make sure that they’re only picking up the coronavirus.

“But also in terms of sensitivity because the antibodies are really only produced maybe as early as seven days, up to 10/12 days.

“So if you’re trying to detect early infection, I think the testing that we’re using currently is the better approach. But for later infections and in terms of especially capturing the level of immunity in the population, the serological testing is beneficial.”

Meanwhile…

Listen back in full here

Previously: That Would Be A Serological Matter [Updated]

 

From top Daragh O’Brien of technology and data governance firm Castlebridge; Covid-19 tracing app in Singapore

Yesterday.

Susan Mitchell and Aaron Rogan, in The Business Post, reported that members of the public will be asked to “opt into” a mobile phone tracking and tracing app by the HSE as part of its strategy against Covid-19.

The HSE has already been in contact with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner about the app.

They reported:

The track and trace technology that the HSE plans to introduce will be facilitated by an opt-in mobile phone app that will allow people to be notified if they were in close proximity to confirmed cases.

Similar apps have been used in Singapore and South Korea, which have been held up as exemplars of how to successfully battle the coronavirus pandemic.

The apps help with contact tracing, which is the process of identifying those who have had close contact with infected individuals. Without technology, these efforts rely on the recall and memory of infected individuals.

Under plans being advanced by the HSE, phones with the app installed would exchange short-distance Bluetooth signals where users are near each other. Records of those encounters are then stored.

A senior health service source said the app would be free to use, and would operate on an “opt-in” basis. If a user is found to have the coronavirus, the app would allow the health service to notify other users of the app who have been in close contact with that individual by telephone.

…Castlebridge, a technology and data governance firm, has conducted research into the Singapore app in recent weeks.

Daragh O’Brien, managing director of the firm, said that there was merit to that model for Ireland which, he said did not record location data but instead used “Bluetooth signal strength to infer the distance between the two devices and how long the two devices are in close proximity to each other”.

Meanwhile…

Anyone?

Phone tracking app set to be used as next step to fight Covid-19 (Business Post)

This evening.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (top), Health Minister Simon Harris and the Department of Health’s Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan held a press conference about the Government’s latest response to the coronavirus, in which Mr Varadkar announced further restrictions on the public’s movements.

It follows the latest figures from the Department of Health confirming that three more people have died as a consequence of Covid-19, one of whom was a healthcare worker. This brings the total number of deaths to 22.

The figures also show 302 new cases have been confirmed, bringing the country’s total to 2,121.

During this address, Mr Varadkar said:

“I said there would be a calm before the storm and the aim of every single action that we’ve taken is to reduce the impact of that storm in our country, to slow the virus down, to push it back, to contain it.

“Throughout all of this, the Government has acted on the advice of the chief medical officer and national public health emergency team, an expert team of public health doctors, virologists and scientists.

“Today they informed the Government that the number of confirmed cases has now exceeded 2,100 and sadly the number of deaths now is 22 and there is a day-on-day increase in the number of admissions to intensive care units. In fact the number has doubled since Monday.

“Transmission in the community now accounts for more than half of all cases. And there continues to be an increasing number of clusters, many of which are in nursing homes and residential care settings.

“Earlier today the Government received further recommendations on the actions that we need to take to protect our people. These are in addition to all the measures that are already in place.

“So with effect from midnight tonight, for a two-week period, until Easter Sunday, the 12th, everybody must stay at home in all circumstances, except for the following situations.

“To travel to and from work, for the purposes of work, only where the work is an essential health, social care or other essential service that cannot be done from home. A list of these will be provided.

“To shop for food or household goods, or collect a meal. To attend medical appointments and collect medicines and other health products. For vital family reasons such as providing care to children, elderly or vulnerable people.

“To take brief, individual, physical exercise within two kilometres of your own home which may include children from your own household, as long as you adhere to two metre physical distancing.

“For farming purposes, that is food production and the caring of animals. All public and private gatherings of any number of people outside a single household living unit are prohibited.

“The virus might be in your house already so please don’t spread it to anyone else’s.

“Sadly, this prohibition includes family visits that are not for vital reasons which I already mentioned.

“A further range of non-essential shops and services will be closed. The guidance given earlier this week in respect of essential retail outlets will be revised to reflect this.

“Adult community education centres and local community centres will be shut. All non-essential surgery, health procedures and other other non-essential health services will be postponed. All visits to hospitals, residential healthcare settings, other residential settings and prisons are to cease with specific exceptions on compassionate grounds.

“Shielding or cocooning will be introduced for all of those over 70 years of age and specified categories of people who are extremely vulnerable to Covid-19. Detailed guidance will be available.

“Travel to our offshore islands will be limited to residents of those islands. Pharmacists will be permitted to dispense medicine outside of the current period of validity of limited prescription, in line with the pharmacist’s clinical judgment.

“All public transport and passenger travel will be restricted only to essential workers and people providing essential services. Apart from the activities that I’ve listed there should be no travel outside of a two-kilometre radius of your home for any reason.

“These are radical actions aimed at saving as many people’s lives as possible in the days and weeks ahead. We’re not prisoners of fate, we can influence what’s going to happen to us next. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.”

Rollingnews

Meanwhile…

Ah here.

Watch back in full here.

UPDATE:

Tonight, just before 10.45pm…

An Garda Síochána released the following statement:

An Garda Síochána has this evening started a major nationwide policing operation focused on supporting public compliance with public health measures over this weekend.

Following recent announcements by An Taoiseach of the necessity for people to undertake a range of public health measures to help stop the spread of COVID-19, there will be high visibility patrolling by Garda members across the country during the weekend.

The focus of this activity will be on encouraging people to adhere to public health measures as announced by An Taoiseach.

The policing operation runs from 7pm tonight until 7am on Monday morning (March 30) and will involve thousands of Gardaí on foot, bike and mobile patrols.

While An Garda Síochána will seek to encourage people to maintain the necessary public health measures, it will intervene where venues/ outlets are not in compliance or where groups of people are not adhering to recommended measures.

An Garda Síochána acknowledges that the vast majority of the public are being responsible and making great efforts to implementing public health measures including social distancing guidelines, this includes staying active as a family unit and availing of fresh air and exercise.

However, the presence of large crowds in any one area reduces the effective impact of social distancing.

An Garda Síochána asks people and families to continue to be responsible, not to attend popular locations for overly long periods and where the numbers of persons starts to increase at any location to leave such areas.

Announcing An Garda Síochána’s operation for this weekend Commissioner Drew Harris said, “An Garda Síochána’s priority is keeping people safe and that will continue this weekend. There will be a major policing plan across the country with high visibility of Garda members at key locations.

“It is vital that people adhere to the social distancing guidelines. This will reduce the spread of COVID-19 and save lives. The vast majority of people are complying with the guidelines and we want that to continue this weekend. By all of us working together, we can flatten the curve and keep our loved ones safe.”

Deputy Commissioner, Policing and Security, John Twomey said, “These high visibility patrols are to provide re-assurance and social distancing advice to the public.

“Garda members will pro-actively engage positively with people. An Garda Síochána will police as it has always done with the consent of the people. It is in everybody’s interest that people comply with these measures.”

COVID-19 – An Garda Síochána Begins Major Policing Operation in support of public compliance of public health measures (An Garda Síochána)

Um.

Anyone?

GMS Pension Scheme?

Pic: Fergal Bowers

UPDATE: