LAST UPDATE | 3 Nov 2021

GOOD MORNING.

Here’s all the news that you need to know as you start your day.

Citywest isolation

1. In our main story today, Stephen McDermott reports the average occupancy of a 756-room HSE-run isolation facility in Citywest was just 13.8% during the first six months of the pandemic.

An internal audit by the HSE of the contract for the Covid-19 facility at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin found that 104 people on average used the service every day between April and September 2020.

The centre opened at the beginning of the pandemic as part of efforts to ease pressure on hospitals in Dublin and surrounding areas at a time when it was feared the number of people who would be hospitalised with the virus could dramatically increase.

Rising Covid cases

2. Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has said the latest Covid-19 case numbers are “very concerning” but the government is not currently contemplating re-introducing restrictions.

Donnelly said the focus will instead remain on the guidelines currently in place such as Covid passes, personal hygiene and mask-wearing, as well as booster vaccines and testing.

Public health officials yesterday confirmed 3,726 new cases of Covid-19 in Ireland – the highest daily figure since 14 January.

Raw sewage

3. Elsewhere, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report has found there are 33 towns and villages in Ireland where raw sewage is released into the environment every day because they are not connected to treatment plants.

The EPA’s report on Urban Waste Water Treatment in 2020, published today, estimates that one-third of these areas will not receive treatment until after 2024.

Climate Action Plan

4. The government’s Climate Action Plan is likely to be finalised today before the publication of the much-awaited document tomorrow. 

As well as outlining different actions being planned to help Ireland achieve its overall target to reduce emissions, the plan will also outline specific targets for individual sectors to achieve. 

Missing girl in Australia

5. Internationally, a four-year-old Australian girl was found “alive and well”, police have said, more than two weeks after she had gone missing during a family camping trip.

Cleo Smith was found in a “locked house” in the coastal town of Carnarvon, not far from where she was last seen, Western Australia police said in a statement posted to Facebook.

Vaccines for children

6. The United States can now start giving children aged 5-11 the Pfizer-BioNtech Covid vaccine, US health authorities have said.

Days after gaining authorisation from the Food and Drug Administration, the vaccine was endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, clearing the way for the vaccination of up to 28 million children.

New York mayor

7. Ex-police officer Eric Adams, who fought racial discrimination within the force, has been elected New York’s next mayor and will become just the second African American to lead the United States’s largest city.

Adams will succeed unpopular progressive Bill de Blasio, whose second and last term ends on 31 December.

Minneapolis

8. Voters in Minneapolis, where the murder of George Floyd last year sparked worldwide protests, have rejected the idea of replacing the city’s troubled police force.

Over 56% voted against amending the Minneapolis City Charter to create the new department, which would provide “public safety functions through a comprehensive public health approach,” according to official election results.

Virginia election

9. And lastly, the Republican candidate pulled off a stunning upset to win the governor’s mansion in the US state of Virginia, US television networks projected, in a race seen as an early verdict on President Joe Biden’s first year in office.