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.
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.
A perfect metaphor for today’s Russia…
@Paul J. Redmond: a Potemkin village?
@Paul J. Redmond: Are you a racist Father…
the late late show had one of them for years until Tubs replaced him!
@Danny G: except it couldnt dance or sing
@Robert Rusk: Still can’t.
Should’ve got someone who could actually dance and it might have looked half realistic then. Peter Crouch maybe?
Johnny 5 is alive!
AWESOM-O
@Darren Davis: fart sequence gave him away
Cmon now Ted
@Donnacha Bhoicaire: wait a minute … these are FAKE HANDS
Did they get it from Western Building Systems?
It’s no Boston Dynamics robot that’s for sure…they are getting scary
@Barry Somers: that’s clearly a dog in a costume!
@Toomasu Sumitsu: shi*t, you are right, it’s clearly a greyhound
George Lucas was way ahead of his time
So after years of Russian bots pretending to be people we have Russian people pretending to be Bots.
Should have got peter crouch !
It was a give away when he pissed on Trumps bed …
This is clearly a plot by the West to discredit Russia, followers of Putin will be along shortly to explain properly.
Chief Knock-A-Homer strikes again
Aliexpress?.
It does look like a lad in a costume to be fair haha
Those pesky Russians
Aren’t they all robots?
If they wanted to fool people they wouldn’t have used a commonly used costume, it seems that if they used a Santa clause costume then the same people would find something else to complain about as the same people complain about Russian bot under their beds…
United should sign him up
have your say