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THE MINISTER FOR Health has ruled out the reintroduction of mandatory mask-wearing, saying there is no longer a need for the “draconian power” that was in force during the pandemic.
Stephen Donnelly defended the Government’s stance on masks, and said it was important to move away from the legal obligation to wear one.
He said that Ireland has moved away from the emergency phase of the pandemic.
“The mandatory powers that were in place were very draconian powers and they were emergency powers,” he told RTE’s News At One.
“We are moving from the emergency phase of Covid to a more medium term phase of living with Covid.
“There is still public health advice around the wearing of masks, however the regulations around people being fined and people being arrested, it was important we move away from that.
“There is still advice around masks, if on public transport, in a busy public place and obviously going to a healthcare setting or a nursing home, that advice is still wear a mask in those place.”
Mr Donnelly said the BA.2 strain of Covid accounts for around 90% of all cases and is the most transmissible variant to date.
Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan told the minister that it would take more than mandatory mask wearing to flatten the curve of the dominant variant.
He warned that it would take a suite of serious measures to control the cases but Mr Donnelly ruled out bringing back restrictions.
Mr Donnelly said that while there were many patients in hospital with Covid, which is causing “huge pressure” on health services, the rate of severe illness is “very low”.
The minister was told by Dr Holohan on Thursday night that almost 50,000 positive PCR tests were reported in the last seven days, an increase of 6% on the previous week.
The number of Covid-19 cases in ICU, whose primary reason for admission to ICU was Covid, has decreased from 29 on March 22 to 19 by March 29.
Around 28% of people in ICU were not vaccinated, 2% were partially vaccinated and 70% were fully vaccinated.
Dr Holohan said in the letter: “The overall epidemiological situation indicates continuing high levels of infection and a significant number of cases receiving general hospital care, although this figure has fallen over recent days.”
He also said that anyone who was infected with Covid-19 over the Christmas period is now eligible for a booster.
Tanaiste Leo Varadkar also ruled out a return to mandatory mask-wearing.
Speaking at Dublin Zoo, he said that hospital data was showing some positive indicators.
“The pandemic is not over but the emergency phase of the pandemic is,” Mr Varadkar added.
“Some reassurance again today, two days in a row we see the number of people in hospital with Covid has fallen.
“And the number in ICU is staying between 40 and 60, two-thirds of whom would be in ICU anyway.”
Mr Varadkar also indicated that delays to the launch of an advisory public health group to replace the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) were being caused by the need to finalise membership.
He said that he expected an announcement on the new group next week.
“What we actually want in this new Covid advisory group is a mix – a mix of people who are, if you like, on the inside – HSE and Department of Health employees – but also some external people who can bring independence and rigour to the advisory group and they have to be asked.
“The delay is for a number of reasons. We have to agree to the terms of reference, we have to agree who’s going to be asked, they have to be asked and they have to be given a bit of time to respond.”
New cases
It comes as public health officials reported 10,839 new cases of Covid-19 in Ireland today.
This afternoon, the Department of Health reported 5,750 PCR-confirmed cases of Covid-19.
Additionally, as of Thursday, there were 5,089 positive antigen tests registered through the HSE portal.
This leads to a combined total of 10,839 new cases of Covid-19 being reported today.
As of 8am, there are currently 1,472 people hospitalised with a confirmed case of Covid-19, of whom 59 are in intensive care.
It comes as the emergency powers that allowed the government to implement Covid-19 restrictions during the first two years of the pandemic were allowed to lapse last night.
The powers had previously been reintroduced due to rising cases, but the government allowed the legislation fall yesterday.
In the Dáil on Wednesday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin confirmed that the emergency powers would not be amended, while Varadkar said that the government doesn’t believe it is “appropriate” to impose new restrictions.
Additional reporting by Tadgh McNally
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So it’ll basically be an iPod nano with a strap attached… But twice the price
Not just ANY strap. It’ll be an iStrap.
And it will tell iTime, just like normal time but with an extra 0 on the end because its better.
I’d say its a load of bull. Who wants to charge their watch twice a day?
Nail on the head.
I can’t wait to point and laugh at anybody wearing an iWatch.
Don’t forget that Sony did this about 5 years ago…….so look out Sony, apple gonna sue your ass…….Steve Jobs thought of it while on the toilet 6 years ago
Nah me and countless other kids thought of it way back in the 80′s.
Meh, I haven’t worn a watch since the 1990′s and don’t intend to start again now. Unless it can do something a smartphone can’t there seems little point really. That won’t stop the fanboys queuing up for them though.
What an awful product. It’s an Apple so there are people, mostly hipsters, who will buy it. I can’t wait for the day Apple is finally crushed. 75% of all phone activations are now Android.
Would hipsters not avoid apple products? I thought hipsters hate anything popular? I’m so confused
You need help, ask your grandmother an apple a day keeps the doctor away but I’d say it’s too late in your case.
Hipsters see the watch as outdated. Ergo they will embrace it and ruin it for the rest of us watch wearers.
They’re already working on their timepiece infringement case they’re taking against Rolex
What a ridiculous idea,I have liberated myself from apple,and switched to android.
Liberated?
Apple make great products, I have been using a G4 Dual Powermac in my home studio for over 10 years, bought it second hand, it was made in 1998 and is as solid as a rock…..unlike windows.
Sent from my iPhone!
Your brainwashed Julian. You have obviously never ventured too far into modern technology if you think your 14 year old mac is still “solid”. Your studio sounds great.
Yay! Something else to break and or get stolen!
You’d want to be an awful eegit to get ur watch stolen off ur wrist!
There is a Sony Smart watch already available and Samsung tried this before and failed.
Theres already a very good Sony Smart watch- this is not an original idea, just Apple sticking an “i” on it so the apple addicts will pay 5x the price for it. l changed to Android this year and would never go back, apple are very restrictive, over priced and have lost their creativity.
What about an iHat with a screen in the brim that folds down in front of your eyes?
The battery, a printer, the headphones and whatever else could all be built in and people would start walking into walls as well as crashing their cars!
Not that far fetched.
There have been some advances in projected touchscreen technology. If the watch could project a screen onto a wall or other surface, with all off the swipe, pinch, slide functionality enabled, you’d be looking at mobile computing without the restrictions of a small screen.
Throw in 4G technology and cloud storage and you don’t even need to much memory. You could even virtualize the running of your apps. This would keeping the memory and processing requirements down to the minimum to manage the touch screen, and would allow space to be kept for the projection requirements.
No offence rob but you are a complete idiot
I’m really hoping this isn’t true. I have a shed load of Apple kit, imac’s, macbook pros, ipad , iphones etc so I’m not a hater but if this occurs the behemoth that is Apple will wipe out Pebble who have come from nowhere, reached out on kickstarter, invigorated a community and innovated in the area. For Apple to just sweep in and steal (as they have done since IOS5) the drive created by the little guy to make mass profit would be yet another negative development for competition in the consumer electronics sector. Come on the underdog.
Watch straps for the iPod Nano have been available for quite a while now and personally I don’t think they look too bad. The idea of buying an actual “iWatch” does sound stupid but if you already have an iPod Nano the strap isn’t that much of an outlay. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XexrkV7SBkA
I had one and it was great for jogging and the gym looked great too. Not so great as a watch because it takes a second or 2 to switch on. Also, its not watetproof. Mine died cause i got caught jogging in a light shower with no pockets.
The only reason 75% of phone activations are Android is because its literally hundreds of types of Android Phone against ONE type of iphone. That being said, I think Apple are going to have to really pull rabbits out of hats to make the iPhone 6 in any way desireable. As for the watch, I can’t imagine it will do much other than tell the time, the current temperature and link by bluetooth to the phone in your pocket, and show the same notifications as get on it. I don’t find that particularly desireable in any way.. so maybe Apple will surprise us with something interesting… have nothing against Android, and really all I have against Apple is there bloody useless itunes program! Personally I think they should come up with some kinetic iphone that charges itself as its used. Now wouldn’t that be useful?
Heard new product is gonna be a Hoover called i suck :)
Talk about a world of distractions. Having an iPhone is bad enough but I’ll never get any study done with an iWatch. I like being able to check the time without squinting at yet another screen thanks.
More likely an ipod that can be worn on the wrist with wireless headphones or something.
Nobody still wears watches do they?
Ok i will try again. Hopefully it wont be deleted this time.
I cant see a straight bloke wearing this gadget because he would be a laughing stock.
Is that PC enough.
Bizarre comment
Or the new apple toilet called the
i-can
Surprised they don’t have this out already it wouldnt have all the features just notifications etc.. and most importantly the ability to switch what your listening to or check progress time in a fitness app. Sony already have the smart watch cost less than 100 euro and it links to your experia phone brilliantly… Really good product in my opinion
Apple disrupts telling the time. Didn’t Nokia or somebody do this before? Can’t see why Apple would bother when one of their accessory people can make it.
What the iWatch could look like.
I still don’t get the whole ‘kick apple users’ thing Derek/Dessie.
Apple products :-
~ Generally are more stylish
~ Generally have higher specs than similar products
~ Usually last longer than similar products
and of course
~ Cost more!
So, if you want a class leading product that looks great, works great, will last for a long time and you have the money…. Buy an Apple product.
If not, then buy something else, but FFS, don’t keep ranting about fanboi’s and hipsters.
Apple may not always be the first to invent something but whatever they do (tv excluded) usually leads to a tech step forward which has to be a good thing right?
Already got the strap for the nano and turned on the clock to be the main screen! Works fine! Just too lazy to charge my watch!!! Doesn’t seem right!
For what it will cost I hope there’s a button on it for when I am just about to get a parking ticket that says … Beam me up Scotty I’m in trouble :)
There’s a watch called an I’m Watch which does this. it’s about €350. A watch has advantages over a phone especially if you are travelling or at the races :)
Who would want to be seen wareing on of these remember the digital watch where are they now or the calculator watch gone and forgotten
You could easily have an analog clock display instead of a digital one.
As others have said, most of this has been done before, but there are some useful potential features.
- Check messages/mail/SMS received without taking your phone out of your pocket.
- Change the song you are listening to.
- See who is ringing and answer (assuming using headphones as handsfree)
- Localised alerts e.g. Pedestrian access ahead closed, 50% off instore, we have that cd/dvd/game on your wishlist available instore, expect rain etc
- Sat nav for walking, check your watch and an arrow points you in the direction,
I think this is the most logical argument here, I like the idea of the location based marketing potential. Rumours are Apple are looking to acquire FourSquare so something as portable as an iWatch could make sense.
Also, GPS watches are quite a lucrative market with the likes of Garmin making them, if the money is there to be made, why not give it a go?
Looks like a copy of Motorola’s motoactv.
After a few weeks you’d end up with eyes like Peter Lorres
imagine an imore? everything apple has done into one device. an hologram type device that is integrated into a small little key ring. activate it and out jumps some annoying 3d spokeperson / cartoon of your choice. you get the idea. maybe i should patent now so i can sue apple for infringement! i admire the way apple has developed / reinvented themselves. but honestly i just cannot stand the impractical software and its functions. had an imac, g4, iphone 3 & 4, ipod. never again. truly android from here on in.
Any chance that Apple will set up a manufacturing plant for the iClog here! Come on IDA, go meet Tim Cook or invite him to the Gathering!
As a self confessed Apple fan I have to say this is ridiculous!! I have an iPhone and an iPad but I’d be mortified to wear one of these, iDump this idea please Apple!
What the iWatch could look like……..
I think no one here read the article properly, “Intel came up with the concept and Apple is now “interested” in building it out.”
I first seen one of these watch phones few years back and always wondered if you could use it in prison and nobody would notice ..just a random taught lol
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