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LAST UPDATE | 9 Aug 2023
TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has said that Ireland is facing “a new wave of Covid” with increased cases and hospitalisations, but that he doesn’t anticipate there being any need for restrictions to be brought in.
Speaking from Belfast today, he said that we are in a “very different place than we were when Covid started”.
Varadkar downplayed concerns about the spread of the Eris variant, which has now been detected in Ireland, as he pointed to the population’s “built up immunity” from vaccinations, and previous Covid-19 waves.
“A huge amount of immunity is built up because people have had the virus and survived it, and recovered from it.
“It’s not something we are complacent about in the slightest but it is a new virus, a virus that we’re going to have to live with, and there will be waves of infection, just like there is with the flu virus,” the Taoiseach added.
The HSE today confirmed that the Eris variant of Covid-19 has been detected in Ireland.
The health service said that the variant is more transmissible than previous strains and has been detected in relation to outbreaks in Irish hospitals, and in other settings.
The variant, which is one of a group descendant from the Omicron strain that has contributed to a surge in Covid-19 cases in different places around the world, was detected at the end of last month in England, and quickly spread.
The HSE noted that there is no evidence suggesting that the variant causes a more severe form of illness.
The health service has also reiterated that unless people are in a specific risk group or setting, they will not be tested for Covid-19 unless a GP or healthcare advises that they should be.
The current advice is to stay at home if you have Covid symptoms until at least 48 hours after they have ended.
Professor of Immunology Christine Loscher told The Journal that a mixture of waning immunity from past infections and vaccinations amongst the public, a greater level of outdoor travel and an increase in indoor socialising due to the bad weather are all factors contributing to a current rise in Covid-19 cases in hospitals at present.
The World Health Organisation has upgraded Eris to a variant of “interest”, and has stated that it may become the dominant strain of the virus globally.
However, the WHO at present has categorised the public health risk of the Eris variant as low, as there is no evidence to suggest that it is causing people to become more seriously ill.
There are currently 408 cases of the virus in hospital, which is over three times the level of hospitalised cases just a fortnight ago.
The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has called for a review of infection control measures in hospitals, care homes and other healthcare settings as several hospital in Kerry, Kilkenny and Galway have made changes to visitation and mask wearing protocols in light of outbreaks.
Don’t care.
@I’m Far Right: YOu cARed eNouGh tO CommEnt dUrRrr
@I’m Far Right: My god, its gained self-awareness.
@David Jordan: My God, you didn’t post a wall of text.
@I’m Far Right: Ah now, he only needs to do that when someone is talking gooch and asserting it as fact
@I’m Far Right: It won’t exacerbate your Histrionic Personality Disorder, so you’ll be alright.
Is there anything to be said for putting the entire country under house arrest for a few years? If it saves one life…
@WokeGenderfluidLiberalKnowsItAll: I love how you’re triggered by something that isn’t even happening.
@Seán Ó Briain: Anecdotal evidence says it has been here for a while since there have been many reports of Covid from children’s summer activities like camps and clubs.
@WokeGenderfluidLiberalKnowsItAll: Depends on who that one life is….if it was your own or someone you cared about, you would be all for it. You can be sure the lockdowns of the time saved more than one life
@Dan Dare: He’s referring to calls for lockdown with ‘something that isn’t happening’ – not Covid.
@Joe x: he doesn’t care about people he doesn’t know. Probably has minimal feelings about the ones he does know. More than a few psychopaths on this page.
@Joe x: Of course we all want to protect our loved ones and our compatriots. Is there any evidence to suggest lockdown severity equated to less c19 deaths? If so, I’d like to see it. Given that different jurisdictions, with less severe lockdowns, had less deaths as a percentage of the population. It could be the case that lockdowns had no effect after the initial surge in early 2020. Any evidence to counter this view or to support prolonged lockdowns would be appreciated.
It would appear that lockdown severity did not equate to better health outcomes in Ireland either, overall, for the population in general, i.e. missed diagnoses, extension of waiting time for elective procedures, etc.
How confident are you that locking down for prolonged periods is a good idea for society in general?
@WokeGenderfluidLiberalKnowsItAll: we had no house arrests or lockdowns in Ireland. Merely public health measures and social restrictions. You’re a Dim Bulb with a user name chosen to antagonise. Says a lot.
Quick Close the Pubs ,, work from home ,, and don’t visit granny,,, ah the good aul days
@Trent: It’s grand, we now know that forcing people to spend a minimum of €9 on something to eat in the pubs keeps Covid away.
@Trent: No need to close the pubs The price of drink is closing them
@Alan Scott: facts. It’s bonkers these days
@Alan Farrell: And even now you still don’t understand.
Comments opened, shocked!!
@Ciaran O Donoghue: Why
@Ciaran O Donoghue: Coz the scamdemic is over .. there just reminding us about the next one around the corner
@Trent: they’re there their
@UK Hurling Bloke: Ugh you again
@Trent: How was it a scam?
@Trent: your grammar is appalling. I was going to bring this up on earlier posts but acknowledge you might have had limited education. Appears that way. That and your lack of critical thinking/analysis.
must have gotten bored with the war in Ukraine, so back to the old reliable Covid to fill the pages.
@Niall English: and yet here you are…
The world’s leading epidemiologist Bill Gates has advised every citizen young or old of every society on the planet to take the vaccine.
(Particularly the pharmaceutical companies he’s heavily invested in)
@Tommy Haze: I’ll be consistent with the vaccines I’ve been taking but don’t mind which as long as they help.
Every time a new variant is announced, Paul Furey feels like Santa has come.
@Antóin Ó Cumamothóin: You seem nostalgic for the good old days. Conspiracy theories ain’t wot they used to be.
@Brendan O’Brien: ( you commented under wrong account Paul )
I have enough to be worrying about, between global warming, keeping my head above water, putting food on the table, sweeping problems under the carpet and jumping to conclusions.
Ah go away .
Everyone has the vaccine, it’s safe and effective and 100% stops infection and transmission.
@Dave Grant: you are correct in your first 2 points, but completly off the mark on your next 2 points. It is indeed safe and effective, as far as any vaccine is but no vaccine prevents infection or transmission of the virus they protect against. They are not a magical shield that prevents the virus entering the body, and once it does, you are infected. Once you are infected, you are also capable of transmission. All vaccines do is train the body to resist the virus. Simple as that. If everyone on the planet had been vaccinated against SARS-COV-2, it would be past history, full stop. But no, there are those that thik they know better!
The flu mutates all the time but you don’t hear anything about it, ohh but when it’s covid it gets all the attention, that’s theyre poster boy
@retro sun: You really must not have been paying attention then. We were always made aware of what circulating strains the flu jab would be covering, and of course the anti vax brigade were telling us about all the hundreds of millions dying as a result of the flu vaccine. Really not much has changed…
@retro sun: it really doesn’t. There are only a handful of strains of the flu and they don’t mutate very much at all. Spanish flu that killed millions between 1918 and 1920 is still around in its original form. Maybe that’s why you don’t hear about it, because it’s not happening. Oh and it’s *their
@retro sun: The usual untruths from the illiterate conspiracy brigade.
How easy the right are triggered and yet they call everyone else snowflakes …
@Wombleman: Genuinely in Ireland we don’t have a right or left,the majority are middle and we go between little left and little right but we are majority middle ground,the far right or far left are a tiny minority on this island,the concerns the people of ireland shouldn’t be class as left or right.
@Daniel Roche: The tiny far-right minority are enthusiastic commenters on this site.
@Wombleman: Why are you politicising a bug? Gather your Covid souvenirs and go back underground.
@Brendan O’Brien: Impossible – you’ve diligently had anyone right of Mao Zedong removed already.
@Antóin Ó Cumamothóin: Have I? I never knew I had such awesome power.
@Daniel Roche: we have the same amount of Far right & far left loons as any other country. It’s our PR-STV voting system that saves us from the madness we see in the US and the UK.
@Maurice F Glennon: PR-STV makes it *more* likely that candidates from fringe parties will be elected.
@Brendan O’Brien: Bob, ya drink your das bath water.
Chat gpt AKA David Jordan has arrived with his AI generated comments containing links to obscure studies. It’s over “David”.
@James Groden: Sorry you get so upset at people being corrected with data to back up the refutation. Box of Kleenex for you.
@James Groden: Yes: how dare he cite science when all you have is emotion. Not a fair fight.
This is what happens when you go and see Barbie
I know loads of people who are sick at the moment, myself included recently, but it’s a summer cold we have. Though I’m sure some are not testing and probably have covid. At this stage we’ve all been exposed to it and between that and the vaccines we should have decent ability to fight off the worst of it. Most of my work involves being around large groups of people so I can’t avoid it if it’s out there. As long as its not more severe we’ll just muddle on.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: I know loads of people that have got covid at this stage, the sickest of them had been vaccinated at the time. His family were told to prepare for the worst. Granted, he had mild asthma, but he was young, 38yo, and extremely fit. In short, the vaccine offers no guarantee.
@Lorne Malvo: Unvaccinated are 10 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than people who are vaccinated and boosted, latest stats from Utah show:
@David Jordan: I said that from my experience the vaccine offers no guarantees, do you dispute this fact or can you not find a link to refute it.
@Gearóid MacEachaidh: I know people who have had it recently, really bad cases included, it depends on the people. Not advocating going overboard, but the same as the flu (not a cold!!!) don’t go out and about sneezing, coughing and spluttering. Vaccines have to be kept up to date with boosters.
@Lorne Malvo: he did not say it has guarantees, but you have better odds if you’ve had it
@Lorne Malvo: “I said that from my experience the vaccine offers no guarantees”
No you did not say that…
“I know loads of people that have got covid at this stage, the sickest of them had been vaccinated at the time”
You said vaccination appeared to make people’s symptoms worse. The sickest people were vaccinated, unvaccinated were less sick.
This is absolute opposite of the truth, it is utter nonsense.
It might be true for ONE person you might know, whom by bad luck got a worse dose than someone else you know who was unvaccinated.
But it is an undisputable a fact that vaccinated and boosted are far less likely to get infected, develop severe symptoms and die compared to people who are unvaccinated.
No not underestimating the effect it can have on immune compromised people or other at risk group’s, just speaking for myself and how I have to operate. I only know mine was a cold because I test every time im sick and my work requires the same for people who are out sick before we return. My whole team of 7 people have been sick in the past fortnight and we all took 3 tests, all negative. But my sister had covid a couple of weeks ago. We have a much lower mortality rate than most countries largely because of the uptake in vaccines here in our older population. We were at 99+% in our over 60s. Some countries, including our nearest neibours, are still recording death totals higher than they should be because of vaccine hesitancy in that age group.
@Lorne Malvo: Pretty clear that he’s providing existing data in case some poor eejit who can’t think on their own reads your ‘the sickest I know had the vaccine’ as ‘the vaccine makes you sicker’ or decides to spread misinformation with it. Your personal anecdotes and David’s data can co-exist and both be true.
In the same way that the people I know who got Covid pre-vaccine were sicker than those I know who got it post-vaccine, despite the latter being older and having existing health issues, but that doesn’t make your personal experience untrue.
Half the country sick with the flu already
Comments have been detected in journal. Government to hold enquiry!
Ah Covid.
Eris arís?
The non vaxed will be dropping like flies.
In north Mayo?
Don’t believe you , I won’t.
horrified , betrified more from losing my job and economic crash
I could do with charging up on my reading. Volume 3 of War and Peace ain’t gonna read itself.
A lot of the issue with the lockdowns is that people cannot differentiate between the virus and the disease. It is not a variant of CoViD-19, it is a variant of SARS-COV-2. Once people learn to differentiate them correctly they might learn what vaccination and other virus related terms actually mean
hmm run over by a bus or nuked all the same as covid19
stay safe all.
have your say