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THE ORGANISERS OF the Dublin St Patrick’s Festival today said it is waiting on a risk assessment report before making any decisions on potentially postponing or cancelling the event.
The festival, which is due to take place between 13 March and 17 March, usually features acts from a number of countries.
The organisers said that the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) is carrying out its own independent risk assessment and that they will receive their findings in the next week.
The statement reads: “The direction from the NPHET to all events has been to await this risk assessment in order to determine the next course of action in relation to the staging of events including the St Patrick’s Festival Parade in Dublin on March 17.
“We have underscored the very urgent need for this documentation to be made available to the festival, so that an informed and prompt decision can be made regarding our forthcoming events. We have clarified to the relevant authorities our readiness to respond in whatever way is required of us in the best interests of public safety.”
The organisers added that they “remain firmly committed to ensuring the well-being and safety of our audiences, both domestic and international”.
They said they will continue to engage with their partners, funders and participants in relation to the matter.
As of today, according to the latest toll from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, there have been more than 82,549 Covid-19 infections and 2,810 deaths worldwide.
According to the most extensive study done so far, the novel coronavirus was benign in 80.9% of cases, “serious” in 13.8% and “critical” in 4.7%.
Part of the reason Covid-19 been declared a public health emergency is due to the speed at which it has spread compared to other coronaviruses (like Sars and Mers) and the fact that there’s a lot about the disease we still don’t know – including how exactly it’s being transmitted.
The outbreak of the virus has already led to the Ireland vs Italy Six Nations match being called off.
It had been due to take place at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday week, 7 March.
Two other games, under 20s Ireland vs Italy game scheduled for 6 March and the women’s Ireland vs Italy game scheduled for 8 March, have also been postponed.
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Call it off please
Give it a rest with articles about this. Scaremongering is all it doing. Influenza has killed approximately 30 people in Ireland so far this year and not a word about that. Real stories like people’s homes and businesses getting flooded and farmers unable to tend to livestock far more important to highlight than this.
@ᑕOᑎOᖇ GᒪᗩᑎᑕY: scroll past them. Try RTE or Fox.
@ᑕOᑎOᖇ GᒪᗩᑎᑕY: yeah because as long as farmers can get to their livestock this global outbreak of an unknown, still untreatable and highly contagious virus, will be the small issue. Total overreaction from all health care professionals worldwide.
Covid-19-articles-a-day
@John Black: better than new coronavirus patients per day I guess
Cancelled it for foot and mouth in 2001, and that was affecting live stock. Should definitely be cancelled, Paddy’s Day in the Summer was quite pleasant that year!
@John Kelly: It’s not about numbers John, say a town like Wexford is quarantined and people are out of work for at least two weeks.
Many are living paycheck to paycheck, they may not catch the virus but they’ll be hit by bills.
Outside of finance there’s other considerations.
If work’s outside the Quarantine do you leave the kids with Grandma, etc.
Just think about your local town shutting down, it’s not about numbers at all.
@Cormac Laffan: and then, if and when employers don’t pay, theres a huge social welfare bill for the country to pay when people claim for their sick days
Heard the guy over the festivities on the radio yesterday comparing Covid-19 to the beast from the east, a bizzare interview. He finished up by praising the government for some reason, not a bulls notion of the real world.
Are they mad.. absolute madness…do it later on
This country is done
@MAJOR PAIN: no it’s not
Call off. HSE . Call off. !!
It seems safe enough from the photo.
I’ll be in my bunker by 17th March . Loads of pasta rice and porridge. The end is nigh….
The parade is cancelled. Why the heck won’t they tell people. Its very poor to pretend it will go ahead. The rugby match is off. Why are they continuing to fool people. Tourists should be informed ASAP. Its a disgrace not to inform them.
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