Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
A DONEGAL PUBLIC health specialist has said Covid-19 outbreaks in the county that led to the implementation of additional restrictions were in all age groups and linked to a variety of social events at which people failed to adhere to the health guidance.
Donegal’s 14-day Covid-19 incidence rate eclipsed Dublin on Thursday evening and the government announced the county was to enter Level 3.
Dr Anthony Breslin told TheJournal.ie cases began to rise at the end of August and beginning of September, something that was expected as restrictions were lifted.
“But the numbers increased more than we had anticipated,” he said.
“If you had a big school with figures coming in from an outbreak in that one school, you might have a few more cases in the community linked to that, but it’s still just one particular area.
“Because we had cases cropping up all over the county – particularly in the mid-north and north-east parts near Stranorlar and Lifford – that did show there was something going on.”
In the case of Stranorlar, it has 14-day incidence rate of 336 per 100,000 population – the highest in the country.
He said between the central contact tracing system and local teams working on complex cases, there was a realisation that there was “community spread and it was due to people, for whatever reason, not sticking to the guidance”.
It appeared people were having events, – christenings and Communions for example – and I have no problem with that – but some had larger numbers attending, particularly in their homes with catering in their houses afterwards and had maybe a couple more people in their homes than they should have had.
“If a child has a Communion you have the parents and siblings and the aunts and uncles, and it can mushroom quite quickly. And then of course people can forget inside the house that they have to practice social distancing.”
Dr Breslin said the small outbreaks linked to theses family and social events involved people “across all age groups”.
“The younger people having house parties, then the Communions, unfortunately there were some related to funeral gatherings, and also retirements and 50th birthday parties.
In addition to that you might have people who are doing what they should be doing at work but once they step outside they forget, when they meet with pals for coffee or a cigarette, or share the lift and don’t wear face masks etc.
Dr Breslin said movement across the border for work, school and shopping is a factor but it has not contributed significantly to the spread, which has mostly been among family and social circles.
Impact of restrictions
He said he can understand people’s fatigue with the restrictions and with the public health advice but he said people need to recognise the “phenomenal role and impact” they can have.
“If this had been a bad storm or a bad drought, the storm would last a couple of days, the drought would last a couple of weeks but this has been going since the end of January, it’s very difficult and people are trying to get on with their lives, to get back to work and school and we have to allow and support that.
“But people have to realise we are in a very different environment now and they have to go that extra mile.”
In particular he urged people who are feeling sick to stay away from others and contact their GPs.
He said it is expected that the impact of the restrictions, if people reduce their contacts and follow the health advice, should start to be seen by the middle or end of next week.
Under the Level 3 restrictions for Donegal, people are also asked to only have visitors from one other household in their home or garden, and to work from home unless absolutely necessary.
Indoor dining in pubs and restaurants is not be allowed, with only outdoor dining permitted to a maximum of 15 people.
Unlike Dublin (which is also on Level 3), ‘wet’ pubs can remain open but with the same limit of a maximum of 15 people outdoors only.
People living in the county have also been told not to leave other than for essential purposes.
The feature is useless if the phone is stolen. It happened to me, we could pinpoint the exact house it was in via google maps, and the guards were called. Unfortunately the app doesn’t give the guards probable cause for a search of the premises and we were unable to retrieve the phone. Handy if the phone is just mislaid somewhere though.
Why didn’t you knock in yourself
With a hammer.
I would have waited till someone came out from the house and then corner them, maybe if it was some kid you could approach their parents.
I’m a 5ft 6″ slim-built woman with four children. Not a hope I’d take it upon myself to knock on the door of known thugs to ask for my phone back. Even the guards were slightly hesitant and they knew if a judge had granted a warrant they would have probably recovered a large amount of stolen goods. Sometimes it’s better to let these things go, sickening as it is.
Take someone with you to film it, tell them your filming then before you ask them about the phone. You’ll be surprised how people don’t react when they are being filmed, especially if their not drunk, shoving a camera in someone’s face makes them think twice about their actions. For all you know that person might have brought the phone off someone else and have no idea that it’s stolen.
Incorrect, if the app pinpoints the location of the stolen phone to a particular house, the gardai can enter that house without a warrant, as technically, an arrestable offence is being committed and there exists a likelihood of the evidence being moved before a warrant can be obtained.
Absolute rubbish. Gardaí can only enter a house without warrant in very limited circumstances; searching for stolen property is not one of them. I’d be wary about knocking up to the house or cornering a kid coming from it as well; you knock on the wrong sort of persons house or catch hold of their kid & you’re likely to get your head kicked in, regardless of whether it’s being filmed or not.
S6 criminal law act permits entry without a warrant if garda believe an arrestable offence is or will be committed prior to a warrant being obtained, the arrestable offence here is handling stolen property, suspect(s) are known
That covers entry only where the suspect is either known or was observed to enter the premises by a garda, it also only covers entry for the purpose of arrest & not search. For your scenario, the victim or a witness would have to either know who took the phone & name them in a statement or they would have to be identified from CCTV footage by gardaí. Then, the premises they entered would have to be their home, a known haunt (even that could be argued) or their entry would have to have been witnessed. Finally, the stolen item would have to be on their person or in plain sight in their immediate vicinity as you can’t search for it.
Happened to me at an airport arrivals. My iPad was stolen but was turned off. I was only able to scrub its data. But goodbye new iPad.
That doesnt mean the phone is useless just the law !!!
An exact address is required for a search warrant & I’ve yet to see any of these trackers that does that. An IP address is much more useful.
Jaysus sandbag, you’d want to get some knowledge before commenting with such authority, once this app is linked with google street maps, it will pinpoint the phone to the area within the house, not just the house
Says the man who reckons gardaí can search your house without a warrant!! Tell us all about your experiences of getting warrants from judges based on this type of software.
I would rather loose my iPhone forever than be constantly tracked wherever I go.
Got something to hide, Glen?
Idiot
You’re tracked anyway Glen through its GPS capabilities, if they’re tracking everybody it makes it easier for the bad guys to go unnoticed in all that information noise.
No one cares where you are all the time Glen. This isn’t 1984.
You’re tracked by your browser, gps, FB , phone signal & a lot of apps you download.
John Do
What a great contribution you must be making to mankind.
hello glen
Jack
We have gone way past 1984 …. Try and keep up .
Simon
What gets me is people have been conditioned to accept this intrusion of privacy. I don’t accept it and I will continue to speak out about it. Criticism and being called an ” idiot ” for having an opinion only makes me more eager.
I wouldn’t switch that option on. Apple pr whoever will track people’s movement and sell on to marketing companies for what ever they’d use it for.
Technology is becoming very intrusive….
it wont be long before eye retina scanning will target adverts directly to you while you shop. Just like in minority report. Advertising will push all sorts of boundary’s.
Are people that scared that companies might advertise you something you actually might want?
If I want something I’ll research it.
Advertising slows down my internet, blocks up my email accounts and puts paper through my door that goes straight in the bin
Oh, and cost me valuable data on my phone which I pay for and don’t want
I don’t use it. I have the GPS capabilites turned off at all times. Some people are happy enough to be tracked and then bombarded with crap, and that’s fair enough, but I don’t like it, so I do as much as I realistically can to minimise it.
The old “if your not doing anything wrong, you’ve nothing to worry about” argument isn’t very clever.
Glen, I don’t think you were called an idiot for having an opinion.
Paranoid a little ?
It’s not paranoia if they are really tracking you.
Glen check out WOOband on Kickstarter, so you never lose your phone and never have to worry about another app tracking you! http://kck.st/1zGiDYK
Also install “prey” & “lookout”
They run in the background & you can set them up to take photos on opening the phone which are uploaded.
They also send an email with their last known location during powering off
Find my iPhone is useless if it is stolen.
The thief will switch off the phone then bring it to an area of no coverage including wifi. Switch it back on and reinstal the factory setting.
Your phone is now gone forever.
The only thing you can do is to report the theft to your provider with it’s long registration number.
They will then blacklist it.
But only with their network and not abroad.
Actually, if you jailbreak it you can set it that the phone can’t be turned off without the passcode.
I don’t know why Apple haven’t introduced this into the standard OS.
I’d bet most thieves arnt that smart, hence why they are thieves!
Always wondered why this wasn’t an option at the least?
That only happens if the thief knows how to do that. Don’t blame the phone manufacturer for that, its meant to find your phone if you leave it somewhere, they cant cover every eventuality
But they could very easily implement this feature. Stopping crooks from turning off the phone is a simple thing to do. As has been proven by the jailbreaks.
Jailbreak your iphone. Download iCaughtU pro from the Cydia store. When the phone is stolen it takes a picture when someone tries to activate the phone. That picture along with the position is sent to your email. The position is sent every 15 minutes. It automatically activates the GPS feature on your phone to allow this. If your stolen phone is connected to iTunes or the internet the phone plays a siren sound which cannot be switched off without the pass code even if a new sim is installed or an attempt is made to relaunch your iPhone. It has loads of other features that assist if your iPhone is lost or stolen. Well worth Jailbreaking your phone. It makes the phone completely useless to the thief.
Find your iPhone, Android, Windows or whatever phones is handy as long as the wife doesn’t know the username and password it uses ;)
James, if your friends don’t want you to find them, maybe they’re not your friends!?
Try the app find my friends for the I phone that’s good fun
James your idea of “fun” and my idea of “fun” wildly differ
I can usually remember where I left my friends.
Could also try getting a WOOband so that you never lose it in the first place, saw it on Kickstarter… http://kck.st/1zGiDYK
have your say