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THE IRISH NURSES and Midwives Organisation has said that early intervention is necessary to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in hospitals. A new, more transmissible variant, Eris, was detected in the country last week.
“Mask wearing and community intervention would hopefully prevent more drastic restrictions which must follow if we have a surge,” INMO General Secretary Edward Matthews told The Journal.
“We need forensic monitoring of the impact on hospitals so that necessary measures are taken in a timely manner.
“Timely and graduated actions now are appropriate, instead of waiting for a surge which will result in much more drastic and unwelcome actions to protect our ability to care for our patients”
Ireland’s Covid-19 vaccination programme was suspended for the summer in June. The programme will resume in the autumn, under different guidelines.
Under these new guidelines, a seasonal booster will be available to those who are aged 50 or older, aged five or older with a weak immune system, aged five to 49 with a condition that puts them at serious risk of illness from Covid-19, or a healthcare worker.
The programme in the UK has also been stopped for the summer, with a resumption scheduled for the autumn.
Those eligible for the autumn booster are similarly those at serious risk from Covid-19, and frontline healthcare workers.
Various experts in the UK have argued that booster jabs should be made available on the private market to those who do not fall under these criteria, it was reported in The Guardian.
The UK Department of Health said that the provision of boosters privately is permitted and is at the discretion of vaccine producers.
The Irish Department of Health said that vaccines are procured for the state by the European Commission, and are administered as part of the national vaccine programme.
There is no suggestion that boosters will be available for private purchase.
However, if those who do not fall under the criteria eligible for a booster come autumn wish to receive one, the HSE told The Journal, they should contact their GP or pharmacist.
Ireland is seeing a steady increase in confirmed cases of Covid-19, numbers from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre confirm.
For the week starting 6 August, there were 732 new confirmed cases, an increase on the previous week of 13.7%. This brings the total number of confirmed cases for 2023 to 22,741.
The greatest number of cases – 176 – were recorded in those aged 75-84. They accounted for 24% of cases.
Only one death was reported that week.
A spokesperson for the Irish Patients’ Association said that “Covid-19 has become just another contagious disease that needs constant vigilance.
“It is advisable for individuals to keep getting booster shots to protect ourselves and others.
“Nevertheless, it is essential for the HSE to reissue up-to-date guidelines, as important information may have faded from the public consciousness.”
Hospital groups are currently monitoring the new variant and taking action on a case by case basis. There is no plan at present to impose general restrictions across hospital groups.
However some hospitals have had to impose restrictions on wards as a result of Covid outbreaks.
St Luke’s Hospital, Kilkenny, and Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan have suspended hospital visiting except for those visiting in exceptional circumstances, as a result of increased infection control measures required for Covid-19.
Visiting at St John’s Hospital, Limerick has been restricted except on compassionate grounds at the ward manager’s discretion.
Visiting at University Hospital Limerick, which has confirmed 35 Covid-positive patients, is under daily review.
However, UHL Group has had no lab confirmation of the Eris variant at either or its hospitals to date.
Saolta University Healthcare Group, which manages seven hospitals in the west of Ireland and Donegal, said that visiting to wards will be restricted in the event of a Covid-19 outbreak, but that there are no wider visiting restrictions in place to date.
They advise visitors to be mindful of public health guidelines and to not visit a hospital if you present symptoms.
Outside of hospitals, Nursing Homes Ireland said that they are following current HSE guidance, which calls for visiting restrictions in the event of an outbreak.
However, they say that residential care facilities must also “strike a balance between the need to manage the risk of introduction of Covid-19 and their responsibility for ensuring the right of residents to meaningful contact is respected”.
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Is the suspicion that the Gardai are monitoring the GSOC or that it’s a newspaper?
It was not a newspaper, the equipment required to do something like this is only available to government organisations.
Em, excuse me, News of the World seems to have been a newspaper quite capable of such sophistication.
did my letters to the GSOC get there or were they opened and shredded Mr Shatter and I can now tell you that the letter i did receive told of not having the money to investigate computer wrong doings
The red thumb gang better get proper id and stop the undercover attacks by now the viewers are aware of what this pr action is based on
@Irish Revolution: Nonsense. Anybody can buy this kind of gear on the internet or even down in Maplin.
What news of the world did was totally different.
The equipment used here is apparently only available from specialist companies who only license it to government agencies.
Irish Revolution,
Private espionage has overtaken govt espionage since the 1960′s. That’s not to say it could have been a govt body/group that carried out this espionage. But seriously, update yourself. Private security/espionage companies have long been at the forefront of technology. And nowhere is that more evident than in Ireland.
NOTW werent that high tech: all they did was put a 5 after the 087 and then put in four zeros as most people hadnt changed their PW
Quite the opposite in fact
. The NOTW simply dialed into the voicemails of various individuals who did not bother to change their factory default security code i.e. 0000.
Hey Harry was that you in that article in the Sunday World yesterday.
willie.. im a guard like your self but the difference is i am a guard of the irish constitution for good over evil
I’m not sure what the big deal is. Anytime I’m at an extern meeting I bug theirs phones…
Did shatter expect the gsoc to hire the gardai to look into this?
Shatter: “why didn’t you tell me you were worried about my mate Martin”
Who would be the most likely suspect to bug the GSOC? I can only come up with one answer and I don’t like it one bit. If its the organisation that I have in mind then Shatter and the government could be looking at the biggest GUBU case since the foundation of the state!
More nonsense. I’m willing to wager that this matter will receive media attention and some sort of investigation but the public will never know what really happened. It’s like Ireland is at war with itself these days with all the crap that’s going on.
According to the Sunday Times, there is more to come on this story next week. Just so people are clear about whats going on here, a phone was not just bugged, a line was bugged. This means that all communications on that line were monitored, i.e. voice and email etc.
The equipment needed to do this is very sophisticated and in reality only available to government organisations. So, either a foreign government was spying on the Garda watchdog, or more believable, an arm of the Irish government was spying on the Garda watchdog. If it was an arm of the Irish state, it needed a court order.
Please dont tell me a revolutionary like yourself reads the Sunday Times! Tut tut!
Better than reading corrupt Irish media.
The equipment needed to do this is very sophisticated and in reality only available to government organisations.
———————————————–
A pair of alligator clips in the phone cabinet. The monitoring device of your choice available from:
http://www.eyetek.co.uk/telephone-transmitters
Just one example of thousands of possible “solutions”.
Great for a single phone line, but not a PABX which is most likely in use in the GSOC.
Oh, you mean that pc under the stairs? :-)
Ya Seamus, a pc under the stairs……….
GCHQ spying part of the whole NSA international spy on everything??
Try looking closer to home….
A few things to remember.
“Why did shatter denounce the PAC for investigating the Garda whistleblowers , especially as Callinan had described whistleblowers as ‘disgusting’ and threatened legal action against the PAC if they didn’t back off.
Why did shatter not step in when Callinan refused the GSOC permission to access the pulse system to investigate the penalty points fiasco?”
“Why did it take a British newspaper to break this story? Why not an Irish paper or journalist?”
“Remember the Garda commissioner himself leaked information to shatter about independent TD Mick Wallace, which shatter then used to discredit Wallace in the dail.”
Quoted from various threads about this on Irish forums, but easy enough to google and verify.
Funny as well when you add the sacking of Gemma O’Doherty in to the mix. Another story being pursued more doggedly by the Brits than by her fellow Irish Journos.
Are we surprised?
Why was GSOC bugged? Who benefited? Who has the power to cover it up? Who?
When alleged corruption in GS was aired the first instinct wasn’t to investigate and root it out – but to cover it up and threaten those who aired it. Likewise when someone at RTÉ upset someone by saying something naughty but possibly true – censor it.
Corruption and cover up is endemic in this country. Too many vested interests. Too deeply ingrained in the culture of the State and it’s apparatus.
Let justice be done though the heavens fall.
Hmmm, now who in the world would have an interest in knowing what an organisation whose purpose is to investigate possible Garda misconduct was saying and doing.
I must admit, I’m stumped.
Hmmm. . . . .
Certainly has me scratching my head.
As figure skater Nancy Kerrigan once said:
http://youtu.be/NjUQMs0kVEI
It is plain to see Shatter’s crowd were not trusted to do the job so where does this leave him ? With lots of egg splattered all over
Who is watching the watchers of the watchers?
Looks like the spirit of the CJH years is alive and well.
The gardai ombudsman is as useless as a third nipple so I for one do not care.
Well someone with access to sophisticated gear does care enough to bug them, which means we should all care.
This sounds like an inside job, Shatter is certainly in the dark and truly clueless to what’s really going on.
He either ordered it, or didn’t know about it. In either case, he needs to get a job elsewhere.
Clueless me thinks , he hasn’t the grey manner where it’s needed . Inside job done with knowledge of commissioner to find out what the watchdog was going to do so they could stay ahead to it ALLEdGELY
No doubt willie frazer will blame Sinn Fein
Because Sinn Fein never planted bugging equipment
Not as much as Fianna Fáil. At least this was found rather than a drunk TD blurting it out on telly. I suppose we’ve grown as a nation since Doherty’s day.
The times knew about this before shatter did! A lot going on than meets the eye.
No trust ,No Truth its all about control . The question is where does the Buck Stop ? .
The simplest explanation is usually the correct one. Who benefits from this bugging?
have we a fan in the country large enough to deal with all the **it that’s about to hit it?
As a Murdoch publication it is hardly surprising that the Sunday Times heard about the story first.
I wonder what their source is.
SF disturbed by surveillance … The mind boggles
I suppose one could argue that someone “unknown” is on a “quest for more transparency in government”. LOL.
This sounds and looks like a plot straight out of a Johnny Engish film…
This message will self-destruct in 5 seconds
Is it possible that Shatter is involved and could he have asked Mossad to assist in the bugging? It keeps the guards out of it.
In exchange for some passports
No, no need to exchange, the Israeli Ambassader to Ireland sorts that out for nothing – like the last time.
This book idea is writing itself
Well done Jason . The penny has finally dropped . Mossad would certainly have obliged for favours rendered .However i am sure in this instance it was a box operation in order to keep it at arms length from C and S branch.
To the idiots here who are convinced the gardai have done this purely because a comment stated it is government issue equipment – with the right money, contacts, you can buy anything on the black market.
heavy machine guns, sniper rifles, military grade explosives and RPGs are also only available to government agencies, yet in the past terrorists managed to easily get their hands on them in Ireland.
I find it amazing how this story was only leaked this weekend when it happened last year certainly knocks off Sean Quinn testifying today off top spot, only saying
Shock horror, nobody tells me anything ####
Don’t they know who I am, Alan Shatter
I get up at 5am every morning and I am in charge.
Do I have to micro manage everything ?
I suspect the commissioner is playing chess and Shatter’s the Pawn.
Shatter put himself in that situation.
What?Surveillance operation by who?
Dr.Who is spying on the Ombudsman?! So that’s why he always has a screwdriver at hand.
ahhh the Gadai spying on the gadai regulator and the “nobody told me” minister Shatter will lead the investigation….Keystone Cops alive and well.
Quick question, whats “the Gadai”? I presume you mean “the Gardaí”
Was the speaker phone manufactured by Lee Tsun Tyu Telecoms of Guangzhou?
Simplest scam in the world would be that Chinese manufacturers of computer and telecoms hardware embed remote spying mechanisms into their products to keep the motherland informed of what their users are up to. And it has been suspected before that is exactly what happens. Apple, NSA and Google would do it too if they had a chance.
How many speakerphones across the globe are manufactured in China?
The speakerphone itself was not bugged, it was the line it was attached to.
Here,
wear this and go sit in the corner…
*hands johngahan a tin foil hat*
It was either google or the NSA
Can’t stand the sight of this pompous idiot and his spare home died hair. I always think of his ‘erotic’ writings. Ugh!
Nah, notw just hacked message services with bad/zero passwords
Ombudsman must resign.
With a government full of buggers, it could be anyone. !
The fact that the ombudsman office knew about this last year and did not tell anyone says a lot about this organisation. What the hell is going on on this country?
How can this organisation be now trusted to investigate the penalty points scandal ?
We badly need an outside independent organisation to investigate what the hell is going on ?
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