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IT’S A DIRTY job, but someone’s got to do it.
Dublin City Council is on the hunt for a contractor to carry out litter removal services for the city, and has spelled out exactly what the capital’s street cleaners should expect to encounter on a daily basis.
So, if you’ve ever wondered what the contractual definition of ‘litter’ is, read on.
While on duty, they will encounter, among other things:
Not to mention the usual sticks & stones, leaves, dead vegetation, soil, scrap metal, rope, wire, bottles, glass, household refuse, papers and mud.
The contract will employ five workers to carry out cleaning duties in the North West of the city.
The tender document spells out just how hazardous the job can be, specifying that the litter removers must be provided with appropriate protective clothing.
“In particular, the contractor shall be aware of the dangers associated with broken glass, discarded syringes and other sharp items…special arrangements will be required to be made by the contractor for the disposal of hazardous/toxic substances.”
Dublin city council also caution that they won’t be paying any extra for staff to work on public holidays, with the contractor expected to top up wages out of their own pocket.
Revised 10.52AM
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Samaritans: 116 123
Pieta House: 1800 247 247
@Sam Murray: keep it up Matt! Nevermind Sam, he stops at red lights in GTA, not to be trusted.
@Sam Murray: don’t understand how someone posting a message like that could annoy anyone, even if repeated daily. Just skip over it rather than being a narky, cynical tw@t about it.
@SugaSharkie: and he deleted the comment….
@Sam Murray: You really think he’s putting it up for “likes”? If it only caught the eye of one person who may be feeling depressed etc sure isn’t it worth it .
@Stephen Rogan: It definitely is annoying.
@SugaSharkie: of course he did , it was a $h!tty comment to make.
@Killenoob08: how is it annoying…. Hes posting helpful numbers , nothing else.
@EmmetC: as someone whose dealt with MH issues in the past, it is not helpful to see covid constantly linked with suicide hotlines.
@Sam Murray: my opinion, maybe different for others
@Matthew McMahon: an important message that could save lives, keep posting!
@EmmetC: It’s a comment section, not a phone book.
@Sam Murray: as someone who has had a brush with suicide on many occasions and whose mental health has been severely impacted by Covid, I can tell you it is helpful. The very fact he posts it shows that at least one person out there cares enough about mental health to go to the trouble to post these numbers.
@Killenoob08: ó. h hush@ up
@Anna Carr: more gibberish.
Rip
@Brian Hunt:
To manage risk and ensure kids get their much needed education, think best approach is:
- decide tomorrow back to school on Monday Jan 11
- tomorrow – Friday: school/teachers prepare online lessons and put steps in place to make this operational (as fall-back scenario)
- Saturday government decide based on latest numbers whether to postpone opening from Jan 11 to Jan 18
Just stay in your gaff if you don’t have to leave it. It’s not that hard.
@Rob Foley: What about people’s mental health? Doesn’t that matter?
@Michael Philips: he said if you don’t have to!
@Michael Philips: it’s down the list.
Get out and go for a walk!
@Rob Foley: Some of the worst health advice I’ve ever heard.
@Michael Philips: Nah. We’ll be grand. People just need to stop moaning
@Ps Tnov: you literally told someone to kill themselves here the other day.
@Michael Philips: what about hundreds falling ill or dieing from a virus.
Wish they would just announce schools are not reopening.
Let us prepare in time.
@Chris: tomorrow, did you not hear??
@Chris: it’s a gimme at this stage. Leaked on Twitter by “mistake” earlier.
@Chris:always prepare for the these days
@Chris: agreed.
@Chris: it’s been leaked everywhere online! He should just say it this evening now.
@Chris: our local school sent out texts this afternoon saying school will remain closed till end of January at the earliest
@Chris: we’ve already made the call, our kids are not stepping foot inside a school for the next couple of weeks. One is in an exam year too.
@Jonnie Marre: first time I’ve ever given you a like
@Critical Thinker: you’re a pet
People becoming numb to the numbers. 17 deaths a day is very high for something we can prevent
@Beer Belly 0476: seems like we can’t prevent.
@Beer Belly 0476: nursing home deaths are very very high. Many people sent from hospitals back to NHs covid positive and then had to be readmitted. It’s almost as if the same mistakes that were made in march and April of last year have been made again. Heartbreaking
@Beer Belly 0476: well we can’t prevent it.. Masks don’t prevent it, even the magical vaccine doesn’t stop you getting it or stop you spreading it…
@Aaron O Brien: think someone is telling porky pies. Yes we can collectively slow the spread of the virus. Yes masks are shown to reduce transmission. The vaccine should reduce disease and transmission of the virus. Please stop so others dont spread these dangerous lies.
@Beer Belly 0476:
On average 88 people die every day in Ireland its not much noticed – 32,000 per year
@Richard Williamson: so it’s all lies.. ok can you show me the studies that suggest otherwise? I suppose indemnity for the vaccine companies is lies too yes? You looking forward to been a guinea pig or is that part lies too.
@Joeohah: this is true. But how much excess death will Covid cause in 2 weeks.? Death will come to us all but I’d like to try and avoid it for a while longer.
@Richard Williamson: sorry I missed one part.. You said the vaccine “should” reduce disease and transmission…I fully agree it most definitely should, but you and I have no idea if it will
@Beer Belly 0476: Prevent how exactly? Destroy the economy, close the health service (to non covid causes), destroy people’s livelihoods, do untold damage to peoples mental health. Do you think these don’t cause any deaths?
@Beer Belly 0476: shut down Dublin
@Aaron O Brien: scientific studies look excellent for the efficacy of the vaccines. The results for reducing transmission are not as conclusive. As a vulnerable person I’d love to queue up to get the vaccine.
@Aaron O Brien: can you please advise what reference point you draw your horse sh!t from?
@I Speak My Mind: it’s not the same Sh!te place that you get yours I assure you of that
@Aaron O Brien: can you name a vaccine that hasn’t involved indemnity?
@Aaron O Brien: The Modena review showed it prevents transmission and as the Pfizer vaccine is the same kind it’s likely it prevents transmission too . Have a look for the info ad it is out there . It means searching beyond your confirmation bias though.
@Purplepickle: buddy you’re using words “likely” .. roll up your sleeve and tell me how you get on.. Good boy
The hospital admissions, wow. This second wave surely eclipses the first wave.
Thoughts with all front line workers. I hope each and every one them is recognised for the work they are doing after this is over. Absolute hero’s!
@Cormac: what is missing of course are the numbers leaving hospital. Why is this not reported???
@Raymond Scott: It’s reported in the Covid tracker app.
@Raymond Scott: that’s not important for us Cormac, that would be giving us good news which is not allowed at this time.
@Aaron O Brien: sorry I meant Raymond
@Raymond Scott: They have been reported previously, but one would assume if there has been nobody leaving hospital no numbers have been given…..
What is slightly alarming here is the constant wording that schools are safe but really?
As of the
Age range affected
Age range Number of cases
0 – 4 2,925
5 – 14 7,155
15 – 24 19,581
Hospitalised cases by age group
Age range Number of cases
0 – 4 66
5 – 14 67
15 – 24 250
@Dave: well those are numbers since start in March. Eg. 5 – 14 7,155. That is about 23 a day (divided by 300) since beginning. Hardly shocking. Enough to close all the schools???
@Cormac: It’s not like hospitals aren’t always overstretched in Winter. I’m sure not having to treat any non-covid causes makes it easier.
@Raymond Scott: Can you just admit that you’ve got children that you’d like to get out of the house.
@Raymond Scott: on the 31st of August the 5-14 group had 562 now 7155. A 14 fold increase give or take. Same day total cases were 28758 today 113,322 a 4 fold increase give or take
@Raymond Scott: Raymond, the virus can spread in schools there is no mistaking that…. People calling for them to remain open are frankly reckless.
@Dave: those figures are cumulative .. bring back Anna for the daily info
@Raymond Scott: probably because they are staff that have been infected
@Cormac: they are not getting their claps from social media anymore
@Raymond Scott: How about the kids not tested due to being asym. bringing it home with them and so on. The schools are one of the only environments at the moment that normal life more or less is carrying on. I think the HSE and the govt are afraid to admit they made a serious error of judgement.
Bring back Anna Anna
@Padraic Forde: covid data hub. Google is great
@Padraic Forde: she has covid
@John O Brien: seriously?
@Padraic Forde: Why ? Plenty of anti-vaxxers still slithering about the place. Don’t need another one.
@Padraic Forde: Showed her true colours and got banned.
Numbers always lower on the first Tuesday of a new year
Stay home, wash hands, wear mask, shop local once a week. Doing all that will be a big help
That’s… far less than I was expecting.. I was expecting 6,800+…
@Mirabelle Stonegate: same I was expecting 100000 a day by now. Whats the fuss about these little numbers all about
@Mirabelle Stonegate: is it down because they are finally clearing the backlog or because they have stopped testing close contacts.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: they are not testing everyone now not even those with symptoms just in high risk groups. So it’s an underestimation by a long shot
@Forkan Orla: Underestimating back last March too when you had two have two or more symptoms to be tested and close contacts weren’t tested either. I wonder what the true number of cases would have been back then
@Beer Belly 0476: We would be totally f00ked if we had 100k a day. 5-6k is bad enough and shows us that some tools didnt bother following advice over xmas. The same tools that moan when we get locked down again.
A plant has been discovered that works against covid19 …..
Plant your backside on the couch and don’t leave the house. Stay safe everyone.
You have a better chance of getting a Ps5 in this country than the vaccine
@Winston Smith: Ha ha ha that is a sad, funny and very accurate comment LOLOL you must have a teenage son
How many vaccinations?
@Martin: Think we’re into double figures now.
@Martin: probably 10 or something……
@Martin: none
@Martin: https://www.howmanyvaccinated.com/
@Martin: 4 and a half
@Martin: The # of vaccinations is irrelevant for now.
They need two doses, three weeks apart and take time to kick in.
It will be months before the effects of vaccinations are felt.
But I spose if your objective is to slag off Govt or NPHET or HSE or whomever to make you feel better, you can bring up our relatively slow rate of vaccinations, like it makes any real difference. Also be sure to mention Israel….makes people know you haven’t a clue how the vaccine distribution and procurement is being handled within the EU.
@Fozz: I think asking how many vaccinations is a perfectly valid question to ask, given our predicament.
@Fozz: not really. The more that are vaccinated now means that we get heard effect of the vaccinations quicker. You say yourself, it takes 2 doses 3 weeks apart, so the more vaccinated now means the more get their second shot in a few weeks time. No point in keeping the vaccination in the freezer and reporting the number of cases and deaths.
@Fozz: By your very logic of the time it takes to get immunity then the sooner it’s ramped up the better. Not sure what your point is.
@Martin: Read, watch, and listen to the media. Try to keep up.
@Martin: https://jrnl.ie/5316432
4,000, as of yesterday.
@Martin: valid but not pertinent…if we had 10 million doses and could vaccinate everyone tomorrow there would still be 800+ in hospitals and you’d have to wait 21 days to give everyone their second dose.
@Mathew Gunning: Exactly. Go 24/7 to get our high risk vaccinated and take the death toll out the equation
@Fozz: You actually argued with yourself in your own post. That might even be a first on here ;)..Best leave logic to the adults if you are that confused…
@Fozz: not entirely true. There is an abundance of evidence from clinical trials which highlight that the chance of becoming seriously ill is reduced even after the first dose. The quicker we could vaccinate those who are most susceptible in society, the sooner we can begin to reopening the economy and getting back to normal. The slower it is, the contrary happens, our process of returning to normal is stagnated and slow. So it is quite understable for people to be questioning the process and calling for the distribution to be as effective and time efficient as possible, given the detrimental consequences that we all are enduring right now. It has nothing to do with bashing the HSE or NPHET
@Fozz: don’t make me laugh. A curative tool in our hands and you think it’s not relevant that 50k doses are in the country & only 4K have been administered.
It will turn around. Like an oil tanker but it will turn. First indicator, close contacts, already falling. Next indicator, cases, will start to fall next week. Then hopefully hospitalization and deaths shortly after….
@David Clements: Agree for the most part but the death rate follows the case rate by a month or so, so I don’t expect the death-rate to fall until February at the earliest.
@Fozz: agreed
@David Clements: Close contacts, I would imagine, will fall significantly faster this month of all months. Nothing as quiet as an Irish January.
Sweet Jesus it’s bad. Close the schools FFS!!!
@Jonnie Marre: They’ve been closed for the last 2 weeks.
@Jonnie Marre: they are closed and have been since 23rd Dec!
@Tom Dowling: even longer in some schools
@Jonnie Marre: calm down!!!
And the minister of education still has the guts to arrive late in a meeting to tell the world that schools are safe. Well, she didn’t have prepared data to back that claim up but she hasn’t done much anyway…
Get the vaccine rolled out ASAP, stop fart arsing about & scaring people
@Dolores English: perhaps the people need to be scared in order to follow the guidelines? Vaccination can only be as fast as they are manufactured and delivered. I only hope enough front line nurses are left to be able to administer the vaccines.
@Dolores English: If you know where’s there’s a stash of 7/8 million vaccine doses laying about, give the HSE a shout, would ya ?
RIP
The information on these cases is important but would it not be just has helpful to see some figures on the vaccine rollout …the frequency per county maybe. . Would be a positive thing in my opinion.
@Jon James: don’t bank on it. The lack of preparation by the HSE is horrendous in terms of storage for it, syringes etc. It’ll be another monumental f up
@Jon James: They’re not publicising those numbers because they are not good, only around 4000 people done so far. I’m sure once they have enough vaccine in the country and are getting it out, they will start pushing those numbers.
Rest in Peace.
Huge numbers. Out of control
@Ps Tnov: You have evidence to support that claim I take it?
@Ps Tnov: out of control, 20% drop in yesterday
@Tony Humphreys: probably a combination of clearing most of the back log and the fact that close contacts are now not being tested. Those actually being tested are symptomatics for CoViD-19, not asymptomatic cases of SARS-COV-2
@Tony Humphreys: drop yes but still out of control in the community
Just a word about vaccines. A major hospital is due to get vaccines tomorrow and they don’t have a fridge to store them. They can’t get the funding. Apparently that’s only one of the problems they’re facing
@Critical Thinker: UHL?
Is this actual number or is this including the catch up over Christmas….. scary times :( RIP
@Tracey Keating Coughlan: it’s the actual number yea
@Tracey Keating Coughlan: catch up..
Insert generic random shocked and outraged comment here…
It looks like we will still be in full lockdowns in 2022.
@Michael Maher: no it doesn’t
@sean Coady: And 2023
close Dublin and Cork
Always high on a Tuesday
FULL five week shutdown, vaccinate close contacts after five weeks, result virus under control economy opens back up
@alan constable: if I thought that was the case, I’d happily wait it out
@alan constable: Don’t bank on that.
Coming down at last heading in right direction stay positive
@Wiggy Wigster: Say what??? F00l!!!!!
Get a grip people. It’s been 10 months and it ain’t ending any time soon. UK CMO had said there will be restrictions until Christmas at least. But yeah, let’s flatten the curve.
Worth noting that the death rate is at 2%. Death rate of all cases since September is even lower than that.
@Adam Conroy: 2 out of ever 100 is high!
@Sarah Connor: break it down by age, and take into account that the majority of the deaths occurred before September. Most people fully recover and the people who are really vulnerable have never actually been prioritised by the government. Also you need to factor in the health cost of lockdowns and stopping things like cancer screening. The lockdowns aren’t working and are disproportionate to how serious the disease actually is.
@Adam Conroy: How many deaths would we be looking at with no lock down and a virus spreading quickly (a lot quicker) through the community? No-one is enjoying being locked down, but if we have these massive issues with the lock downs, imagine where we’d be without them.
@Sarah Connor: No point locking down if there’s nothing done to improve the health system or protect those most likely to actually die from Covid. It’s also causing problems in other areas of health that we’ll have to deal with down the road.
@Adam Conroy: however, long covid and organ damage are a huge concern.
@GClare: still has to be weighed against the overall health cost of rolling lockdowns
@Adam Conroy: True, there will be consequences, we’ll recover from the economic issues, but people being told not to go for cancer treatment etc is awful. That’s why it’s important to close everything now and concentrate on getting the numbers down, once we get the numbers down normal hospital treatments can resume.
@Sarah Connor: How many? The prediction of 100,000 last March was clearly unrealistic.
@Jim Lingk: More than there are now I would imagine. Impossible to to tell where we’d be now without any restrictions.
@Sarah Connor: Almost certainly more related to Covid. How many deaths will be caused by lockdowns? Mental health, cancer and other non covid health problems going undetected and untreated, isolated older people giving up etc. There are two sides to this.
@Jim Lingk: I see you already have pointed this out. However, you seem to think locking down now is right, but we have been locked down half of the last year or so and there is already plenty of people who have been impacted medically. And already a huge backlog on medical procedures and treatments and appointments. Let’s not forget the health service was a disaster BEFORE this and the reduction in capacity over a large part of the past year means it is getting worse and worse each day. But this won’t be seen properly until the Covid situation s more under control.
@Jim Lingk: That’s the point Jim, if we don’t get the covid numbers down quickly, the hospitals will be overwhelmed, resulting in more people with non covid related illnesses being put off attending appointments. The sooner we get covid related illnesses out of the hospitals, the sooner we can get back to a higher level of treatment for everyone else.
Were do you have to go to find an article, or god forbid articles, that shine a critical eye on this government’s response to the pandemic. Specifically the actions taken around the Christmas period; reopening when 200+ cases per day, no restrictions on movement and seemingly a free for all on arrivals into the country. We point to the US but our positivity rates are in line with their worst performing counties. Now overwhelmed and still no pressure being put on this government.
@Gus: This is Ireland Gus, the blind leading the blind, not knowing their left hand form their right…. The next general election in this country should be interesting…. Make no mistake about it my questions are already ready for the those happy go luckies knocking on my door looking for votes..
@Dave: yeah cause Sinn Fein would’ve sorted it all out but now, even saved the world
@Dave: yeah cause Sinn Fein would’ve sorted it all out but now, even saved the world
@Donal O’Leary: Nobody mentioned Sinn Féin but stating the obvious as regards the continuing incompetence of this and previous governments as to the running of our health care system does not a shinner make. I don’t see too many of the management or support tiers in the HSE striking for better pay deals do you… Kind of tells its own story as to where all the money is going
It’s proving much easier to control the people than it is to control the virus.
@Michael Philips: I find it amazing that China, who murder students for protesting, need a scam virus, to control their people.
Stay at home particularly if you are in the over 70 age bracket says Dr Holohan. However, Dept Transport says: if you happen to be over 70 and need to renew your driving license you must take yourself off to your GP and have a medical to declare you are fit for driving – even if you are perfectly fit and healthy. This requirement was dropped for a period of about 2 months up to end December 2020 to safeguard our older population and re enforced 1st Jan 2021 at a time when we are in the midst of the third wave of a rampant pandemic. The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. Any comment on this fiasco Dr Holohan?
Great to see the numbers coming down. If this continues we should have a zero covid Ireland in a few weeks.
@Jim Lingk: Good one
@Jim Lingk: Daily case numbers down thankfully probably because they are clearing the back log, but also because they have stopped testing close contacts at the moment. Which means it could be a big underestimation at the moment of the no.s of SARS-COV-2 cases in the country.
@Joe_X: I know
Very sad
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