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PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS have confirmed 576 new cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.
The Department of Health has reported that 58 patients with the illness are in hospital today, including 16 in intensive care units.
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Yesterday, there were 581 cases of Covid-19 confirmed in Ireland, there were 52 people in hospital, and 16 in ICU.
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@Ed: It doesn’t, the allocation of 90 mins time slots at 1m distancing mitigates some of the added risk of reducing 2m to 1m. The €9 is part of the Intoxicating Liquor Act with regards to what constitutes a meal, and must be adhered to by the publican to be allowed open three weeks earlier than those who don’t serve food.
@NotMyIreland: 1 metre should suffice in all shops so as who would spend more than 90 minutes in one. As with everything FG have done during the pandemic everything is contradictory to something else.
@Ed: 1m distancing is for people seated at tables, not moving around. If they are moving around 2m distancing should be adhered to according to the guidelines. So unless you go into a shop to sit in the one place without moving around it is 2m.
@NotMyIreland: You can contract the virus by being beside an infected person for a minimum of 15mins, hence the 2m rule. But theyre saying now, you can sit within that distance with another person for 90mins but out and about walking around you must stay 2m apart and youre grand…Its absolutely nonsensical.
@Daimhín De Naois: You can catch the virus in the time it takes to take a few breaths, if the viral particles are in the air. The 15min rule is for determining a close contact for testing, but also mitigates risk, and as we are not equipped to test all contacts they had to set some form of parameters and limits. Its the same with the 105 minutes, its just parameters to mitigate against risk, not make the risk zero. Also the guidelines say people not in the same household should still be seated 2m apart. They have relaxed the rules for the viability of business, which was called for, and now people give out that there are differences. The alternative was to stick to the 2m rigidly and let businesses fail.
@NotMyIreland: The chances of randomly breathing in enough suspended viral particles and getting sick is slim to none. Below 15 mins in an enclosed environment is low risk exposure. Over 15 is high risk. Therefore 90 is? The issue is relaxing one rule for one setting and enforcing it in another. Its non sensical. Indoors is worse for contraction than outdoors yet for this business model we’re told its the opposite.
@Daimhín De Naois: Its true the amount of time spent increases the chances. It can only take one breath in certain situations, ie. someone sneezes in your direction within the area of spread of a sneeze. So yes, close face to face contact is 15 mins. But my original point that the 15 minute rule was picked to mitigate risk still stands, it could have been 5, 10 or 20. This is from the ECDC:
Longer duration of contact is assumed to increase the risk of transmission; the 15-minute limit is arbitrarily selected for practical purposes. Public health authorities may consider some persons who had a shorter duration of contact with the case as having had high-risk exposure, based on individual risk assessments.
@NotMyIreland: The 90, or now 105, min rule was also a limit arbitrarily selected for practical purposes. Why is there a difference? The 15 min rule is for determining who is a close contact, (part of the case definition), ie. someone within 2m of a case for 15 mins. The 105 limit however is a risk mitigation technique, (not a part of a case definition), for those gathering indoors. The equivalent risk mitigation technique for outdoors is 2m social distancing, which is not time limited.
@Ed: I love pints more than anyone. They are delicious.
So pubs were not supposed to be opening, pubs used argument that they wanted to serve food. Then when that happened they complained about 2m rule and now the issue is serving food.
If you don’t have 2m and you don’t have food its just a pub!!!
@Ed: Well, small people have a lower vapour exit velocity upon sneezing unless a mask is worn so s=ut+1/2ft2 meaning a lower distance (s) (where f=acceleration; t=time of travel; u=initial velocity=0) but what do i know, just avoid the big guy in the corner not wearing a mask…
@Daimhín De Naois: Tbh these are all empirical measures. There is no magic scientific formula unless you apply the Bournoulli fluids equation which seems very harsh and unrealistic imho as you would have to assume everyone emitting vapour by breathing or sneezing is actually infected.
A lot of complaining by the publicans re the rules that allow them to open earlier than planned if they serve food. They wanted to be treated as restaurants and to be allowed open with them. What did they expect? Clearly NPHET feels it is still too early for ‘normal’ pubs to reopen. Presumably when we get to that phase the rules will be much more straightforward.
With about the urinals,auld fella coughing spluttering and pissing on yeah at the same time telling yeah his parched the last few months and the wife is nagging him
@tuco: We’ve been adhering to a 1 urinal gap since they were invented. Its an unwritten rule of social distancing that most men have followed for years :D
Folks, can I ask why the media are ignoring our slow return to education? Even in the UK, some children have gone back to school. They are back around Europe. We are depriving children of an education and this 6 months could cause irreparable damage. I find it incredible how the government is getting an easy ride on this and nursing homes.
@EnKy: I wouldn’t take the UK as a good example to look to for any decision making in the pandemic, but the rest of your point is valid. Kids are less susceptible to Covid-19 so school opening shouldn’t be considered.
@EnKy: Secondary schools would have been closed 3 weeks ago, primary in 2 weeks time. The UK only starts school holidays mid July, and I am not sure of elsewhere. My estimate is 2 and 1/2 or 3 and 1/2 months is about what has been missed, not 6 months.
If “damage” has been done then it has been done already in the name of saving lives and stopping spreading the virus. For every step that is taken it can take up to two weeks for any fallout (as in case increases) and I do not think that at the end of April or start of May we were in a position to decide to reopen schools.
Maybe, now with numbers as low, if this is maintained and people wear the masks and social distance, then we might see the schools being in a position to open in full at the end of the normal school holidays.
There are children who, for many reasons, may miss months from school (e.g. illness) and have to do extra to catch up but all children are in the same both and I fail to understand the “irreparable damage” statement although I do accept the post leaving cert students may have iusses, but as I say, the same applies to everyone, so everyone has the same catching up to do.
I think you have to distinguish between “easy ride” and “supporting” the government. Some want flights to Spain back and some want the pubs open and some refuse to consider wearing masks and many fail to social distance – any issues are caused by the people not the government or the health advisers.
@Martin Moloney: Very sorry to hear that… Although Less susceptible doesn’t mean completely immune… the risk is there, just much lower than the older age groups… Schools should be reopened with social distancing rules in place of course.
@EnKy: Secondary Schools in the Netherlands have always been on a shift basis 0730 till 1930. You could have maths in the morning, go home, come back later in the day for Physics etc. Big population nearly 20mln, avg 3k per school.
If there is a financial fund by the EU. I wonder what other EU countries will think of our extreme cautious approach considering majority of them have opened up faster with the same risks but understanding the importance of keeping their economy going.
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