Dr Tony Holohan, chief medical officer at the Department of Health
This morning.
More than 500 patients were transferred from hospitals to nursing homes at the height of the coronavirus pandemic which left Ireland with the second highest death rate in care settings in the world with 1,030 victims.
Dr Tony Holohan, chief medical officer at the Department of Health, on RTE Radio One’s Morning Ireland said the high number of deaths could not have been prevented.
Via RTÉ:
Dr Holohan said that it is not realistic to say that the high number of deaths in nursing homes and other care settings could have been prevented as he said that “it is a highly transmissable infection” especially for those aged over 80 and this makes prevention of it challenging.
Dr Holohan said that influenza is transmitted in significant numbers in these settings each year and as Covid-19 is virulent and spreads even more easily than influenza, it makes the absolute prevention of the spread of Covid-19 unrealistic.
He said “we know the measures that are important in slowing down that transmission and we need to continue to offer protection to nursing homes”, although the numbers of infections have fallen.
He said that deaths in nursing homes in Ireland are at the lower end of the mortality experience in European countries and a lot of reporting had focussed over-simply on the proportion of deaths in nursing homes.
Hmm.
Holohan calls for more compliance over facemask use (RTÉ)
Previously: ‘‘I Expect It To Be Ignored, As The Elderly Have Been Ignored’
Meanwhile…
If 1030 school children had died, instead of 1030 Nursing Home residents, Eamon Ryan would not still be propping up the Government.
— Dr. Marcus De Brun (@indepdubnrth) June 11, 2020