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TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has confirmed that antigen testing is to be carried out in schools.
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said at the weekend that rapid testing of close contacts in primary schools could be introduced before Christmas.
Martin said that he has spoken with the chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan about the measure, who has been sceptical about their use in the past.
Martin said: “In terms of the contact tracing, there will be utilisation of antigen in given areas within schools, in line with advice from public health.
“Public health has been very consistent in relation to schools and advice to schools.
“And we’ll continue to keep the matter on the review.”
Martin said the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) had advised that antigen testing may be used in “specific circumstances within schools”.
However he said public health experts are more concerned about the impact other respiratory illnesses, such as RSV and bronchiolitis, are having on children than Covid-19.
He said: “The real message from public health has been RSV, actually, and non-Covid respiratory illnesses are more of a problem for children right now, in respect of admissions to hospitals.
“And so the basic advice has been that anybody who’s symptomatic in any way in terms of respiratory illness should not go to school.
“That’s been consistent over the last month to six weeks in terms of RSV, which is a particular respiratory virus and others.
“The same issue has not applied to Covid in respect of children getting severely ill or going to hospital.
“It’s RSV and other issues, bronchiolitis, that have proven to be more problematic this year.”
The Taoiseach has also called for “maximum compliance” with the vaccine certificate requirement for indoor hospitality.
It comes after ESRI research found that the number of outlets not asking customers for Covid-19 certification had almost doubled in a month.
The research, published last week, found that 37% of indoor diners in pubs said they were not asked for certification, compared with 21% the previous month.
For restaurants, 34% of diners said they were not asked for their Digital Covid Cert.
Officials from the Department of the Taoiseach are meeting with stakeholders from the sector today.
“The bottom line is, and the broader picture is that we want to see maximum compliance with existing guidance and existing regulations, particularly in terms of the vaccine certificate” Martin said.
Minister Donnelly had earlier called for “rapid sanctions” for pubs and restaurants that fail to check vaccine passes.
But the Taoiseach said he wanted a “constructive” engagement with the sector.
“The engagement up to now with many sectors, including hospitality, has been of a constructive nature.
“This will be a constructive engagement,” he said.
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About time!!!!
@Ann Experiment: they open bars and restaurants on the basis that people should be responsible for their own behaviour. Then the bars and restaurants don’t bother with the protocols! As for the schools, mismanaged from the start despite all the pr bs from foley. In each case it seems that those who are acting responsibly will ultimately have to concede victory to mismanagement and a complete disregard for agreed procedures
@alan: The Irish government have literally press ganged the private sector into enforcing these health guidelines. Why should private business be forced to do the governments job?
The Irish government forced these businesses out of business and then they make it so they can only start making money again if they agree to be the COVID police. This smells of fascism and will not be remembered fondly once the COVID hysteria subsides.
@Will: the hospitality representative bodies themselves wanted these measures, plus it’s now the law. The Minster is right, there should be immediate sanctions for any businessss caught breaking the rules, just as we already have for food hygiene.
@Will: have you ever been asked for Id in a pub , what if you started to smoke indoors ?
@Seán O’Sullivan: I did get asked for ID and my vaccine cert at a pub at the weekend.
They’ve been consistent? Consistently wrong maybe. Produced a Roadmap for reopening that was based on the idea that covid was not airborne, except that it is. Didn’t allow for social distancing. Didn’t recommend masks. Didn’t put any ventilation measures in place. Didn’t follow WHO advice on vaccinating education staff as a priority (well, promised they would and then reneged). Didn’t follow ECDC advice on close contacts, then removed contact tracing entirely because they projected infections rates to fall, and, obviously, they sky-rocketed. Zero faith in the government’s handling of schools, not as a parent, and not as a teacher.
@Mac Muinteoir: Haha. Where are all the vaccine extremists now??
Either in a pub or a nightclub or an office, piled up on top of one another after fully signing up to their Pfizer subscriptions.. or “blocking up” the hospitals having acquired covid despite their tacit compliance with the state and large, unethical corporations.
Waterford has the highest rate of vaccination in the country with 99.7 per cent of adults over the age of 18 (as registered in the last census) fully vaccinated. The county has gone from having one of the lowest rates of Covid-19 infection in Ireland to one of the highest.
@cathalsurfs: ‘The county has gone from having one of the lowest rates of Covid-19 infection in Ireland to one of the highest.’ Therefore, the vaccinations don’t work? Is that what you are trying to say?
@cathalsurfs: so ?
@cathalsurfs: Waterford is not closed off from the rest of the world , 20% of unvaccinated children living there.
@alan: I am not saying that. But recent revelations regarding clinical trials (and their results) carried out by Pfizer et. al. in order to approve their “jab” might cast some doubt on, basically, everything that has be proported regarding the “vaccine” so far.
I say “vaccine”, in quotes, given that only recently (this year) Mirriam Webster dictionary changed the definition of the word “vaccine”, so that these new drugs (mRNA) are included within the definition.
https://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/covid-19-vaccine-trials-cannot-tell-us-if-they-will-save-lives/
Games almost up. And while Pfizer execs sit there up in Ringsend with their brass plaque outside the door, with their HEPA filters blowing their billions in tax free profits around like so much snow in a snow globe, those with some measure of interest in open science, intellectual curiosity and critical thinking are still wondering why the state hasn’t built additional hospitals, gone on a health care worker recruitment spree, increased the wages of essential workers substantially, etc.
Months behind other countries.
But wait.. don’t antigen tests “not” work according to official lines.. just like Ivermectin or other, generic, off-patent treatments do “not” work. Wait a while now..
@cathalsurfs: ask Eamon Ryan. Both of his tests worked, didn’t they?
@cathalsurfs: Invermectin works for parasites. Antigen tests work when the viral load is at it highest, so good to catch close contacts when tested every few days. But not for random testing and not for contact tracing if they are not used in a controlled manner which is what they are doing. Does that help clear things up.
@SmallbutMighty: Just to clear it up a tiny little bit more though, this Noble Prize-winning drug is also famous for being effective in other things, including HIV-1, dengue VIRUS, Zika VIRUS, West Nile VIRUS, Venezuelan equine encephalitis VIRUS, Chikungunya VIRUS, Pseudorabies VIRUS, adenoVIRUS… it’s almost like an antiVIRAL
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7564151/
In fact, did you know that there are over 60 peer-reviewed studies in favour of ivermectin being used for Covid, more than 30 randomised controlled trials, the highest level of evidence we can produce in the field? Had you not heard that? And its not only insanely cheap and off label so could save millions of lives in poor countries while the rich whites hoover up all the vaccines but is incredibly safe, with long term safety studies in kids and everything.
“Meta-analyses based on 18 randomized controlled treatment trials of ivermectin in COVID-19 have found large, statistically significant reductions in mortality, time to clinical recovery, and time to viral clearance. Furthermore, results from numerous controlled prophylaxis trials report significantly reduced risks of contracting COVID-19 with the regular use of ivermectin.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8088823/
Antigen Tests ? Wow ! – who would thought they might be useful eh – another world first as Ireland again shows we are best in class – best in europe – absolute best – first class – cutting edge – quick out of the blocks – im running out of cliches or adjectives …this is amazing – well done to all concerned – where would be without this super fast crisis management team eh …..
Why? I thought schools were safe
Who’ll do the tests in schools?
Please don’t let it be the teachers or we’ll never hear the end of it.
It appears you’re the one moaning! Do you seriously think teachers should be forced to administer a medical test on another persons child? They’re barely allowed to apply a band aid for fear of litigation.
@Sorcha Ní Shúilleabháin: not allowed apply Band Aid actually. In some schools anyway
@Patricia Ellis Dunne: Yes, that’s certainly the case in some schools.
@Stanley Marsh: so how did that play out in your head? Close contact gets brought into school to be tested by the teacher….or maybe parents gets text to say said child is a close contact and should stay home and wait for an antigen test?
Still oozing reluctance to do the sensible and necessary thing- comprehensive antigen testing in schools. Now we are told that other respiratory infections are of more concern.
The Minister of Education’s grandiose ‘suite of mitigation measures’ in schools is little more than an ‘open the windows wider’ policy.
I’m not against any diagnostics that may help in the pandemic but should they not also be saying how much each test costs, medical staff costs etc and how accurate the tests are, also what is the estimated number of antigen tests in schools on a weekly basis.
Sorry, are we going to have trained medical staff doing this? The teachers won’t be doing it, that is for certain: the schools were closed down to save their lives, not children’s lives. Now they will be doing the testing? I don’t think the Teacher’s Unions will be okay with that. Next, will the kids have these things shoved up their noses weekly? Daily? Seems like this, like most of the government directions, hasn’t been thought out.
@Roger Pollack: why would a teacher be doing the test. Why would the kids be doing them weekly when it’s just for close contacts. Oh did you not actually read the article maybe.
@SmallbutMighty: I read the article, tiwice. Nowhere did it say who would be doing the tests and at what frequency. Did YOU read the article?
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