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HEALTH OFFICIALS HAVE confirmed no further deaths of patients diagnosed with Covid-19 and 79 new confirmed cases of the disease in Ireland.
The number of people in this country with the coronavirus who have died stands at 1,776 and there have been 27,755 confirmed cases.
Yesterday, 136 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in this country.
Of today’s cases, 21 cases have been identified as community transmission.
43 cases are in Dublin, 9 in Kildare, 6 in Cork, 6 in Tipperary and the remaining 15 cases are in Clare, Donegal, Laois, Limerick, Louth, Mayo, Roscommon, Wexford and Wicklow.
Today’s cases were confirmed this evening following a briefing by acting Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ronan Glynn and Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.
The briefing provided details of an extension of lockdown restrictions in Kildare.
“The epidemiological situation in Kildare means that we must extend the public health measures for a further two weeks. While there is some cause for optimism, the 7 and 14 day incidence rates in Kildare remain very high. Evidence suggests that the measures are working, but more time is required to reduce the number of cases in Kildare,” Glynn said this evening.
We as a nation must show solidarity with Kildare in our collective efforts, especially over the next two weeks, by working together to suppress this virus.
Speaking at the earlier briefing, Glynn said he wanted to reassure people about where the virus stands in this country.
“I know that a lot of people are worried and frightened by the escalation in cases in recent weeks. But I want to reassure you that we are still in a relatively good position in this country,” he said.
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holy god you would think the country and media could just move on from this incessant coverage of Leaving Cert – the rest of the country is in a perilous state in terms of livlihood , non covid health challenges , economy and that pesky issue of. a reopening. schedule that is suppose to be a ‘live plan’ but increasingly looks like NPHET are sticking to their 2m , 5 phases , 3 weeks and a spinfest on how amazeballs we were with nursing homes – seriously the leaving cert narrative is overcooked by now FFS
@Dave Hammond: I think the whole point was that this is what the vast amount of students believed was the right course of action, but the Government, as always, refuse to listen unless they are left with no have no options- amateurs seeking headlines and politicising a crisis for the own self importance and the sad part is they are receiving very large publicly funded salaries to be amateurs.
@Dave Hammond: Would you ever register yourself; you never know your luck.
Question? What happens if they don’t register.
@Dave Barrett: they don’t get graded and can re-sit the exams later on, that’s my understanding anyway.
@Vic’s Burd: very hard either way. For those wanting to sit the exam the course syllabus was not completed by teachers in a lot of subjects. Distance learning the Is not the same as been in The class.
@Dave Barrett: They will be fine. They will meet many greater challenges in their lives.
@MiseBean: Indeed. Stopping school in mid-March & staying at home wondering when something’s going to happen; missing their pals & teachers; trying to study at home amid television distractions – all this has been for Leaving Cert students a Test of Character. It will prepare them for the Rotha Mór an tSaoil, life’s wobbly rotation, wherever it brings them.
@Dave Barrett: read the article?
@Vic’s Burd: If this is the case its disgraceful zi think. IMO all should be graded and then if theu don’t like the outcome they should be able to sit the exams later in the year. They should be graded no matter what. Is it saving the teachers having to grade them doing it this way?
@Lydia McLoughlin: No. they need to opt in & state their levels
@Caddyshack: tx
Some stupid decision. They should have done the leaving cert.
easy to distance them when it is only them in the school for the exams. Have six in each classroom with the windows open. Simple.
@Nioe: And the orals. 2 people in a room at any given time.
@Nioe: practicals, projects had to be completed how were they ever going to be finished?
@Nioe: Of course! Magic up some time/people/space and get it done. If only you were in the room when they decided this.
@Conor Rowan: they had the whole summer to play with, there are more than enough teachers in the country to invigilate small groups, and the schools are lying empty. Any other issues?
@Lurfic: Given the social distancing requirements; we could have had double the amount of sittings per student not counting orals, aurals, and practicals. Now add the complication of limiting people in each building – getting it done in 2 months would be an achievement.
Next there’s additional invigilators required – I’m sure many teachers would volunteer (and let’s forgo training them for the sake of argument) but, given how awkward the unions have been getting the current process in place, no guarantee they’d be available for the start date.
Now I’m by no means knowledgeable on this at all but even I can think of 3 potential sumbling blocks.
Plenty of armchair policy gurus suggesting ‘why don’t they just X’ as if there’s easy answers during this once in a lifetime crisis.
@Nioe: unfortunately the problem was that if one student showed symptoms that whole shool would have to isolate and this could be a possibility in any number of schools
@Conor Rowan: all 3rd level exams were carried out, online mostly. What’s the difference between a 17/18 etc year old sitting a leaving cert and yhose of the same age sitting 3rd level end of year exams?
@Stephen Foster: The LC is every 17/18 year old in the country doing multiple, tightly controlled exams at the exact same time. It’s not really comparable to 3rd level assessments.
As said, not an expert, but just don’t think it’s as simple as suggested.
@Conor Rowan: Actually the unions were much more supportive of holding the the LC in July with physical distancing than the current predictive grading measures. The issue they take with it predictive grading is that they’re against teachers grading their own students on an official capacity due to lack of objective evaluation and possible bias. Also the department of education didn’t really involve the unions in the whole process and just flung it on teachers and students.
A question not answered yet is what about students who choose to sit an exam that has coursework element e.g. Engineering, Construction etc.? They haven’t done the practicals not the projects and folders. How will they resit them?
@Edward Ucator: If resitting this year then that would have to be a written exam only like it was going to be.
If next year then I presume they’ll be seen the same as repeat LC and will have to do the projects from September like every repeat LC student in previous years has done.
@Sophie: If they have to repeat then that means too many in class rooms making social distancing a joke. This will become very messy yet.
Considering the LC is itself about education, and in a wide variety of subjects — not just English — students are penalised for poor expression, it’s very ironic that the *official* name for this system is so poorly worded: “Calculated Grades”? Are grades in other years not calculated?
@Gerard: No. They’re obtained or achieved. In this context, the definition of ‘calculate’ is different to the way you’re using it.
@JusticeForJoe: oh really? There’s a definition beyond “to determine mathematically”?
News to me
Serious difficulties trying to register . More top thinking and collective decision makers given sixty thousand plus two days to register. Give my head peace !
@Seosamh Snr Nolan: it’s not that hard.
17,000 according to RTE??
Why do they need a students pps? Honestly, just wondering…..
@Sean Oige: because its a state exam I would presume.
have your say