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THE HSE’S CHIEF Clinical Officer Colm Henry has said that it is the desire of public health authorities to recommend lifting the restrictions placed on Kildare “as quickly as possible”.
This, however, is dependent on daily data from the county and reducing the case per 100,000 population level there.
Restrictions were placed on Kildare on 8 August in an attempt to curb the rising spread of Covid-19, and these restrictions were extended for another fortnight last week.
Henry was one of several senior HSE representatives addressing reporters at a briefing in DCU today.
HSE CEO Paul Reid said that a second full lockdown is “exactly what we want to avoid” while Henry said that “the risks of keeping schools closed now outweigh the risk of Covid for children”.
HSE CEO Paul Reid is first up to give strategic overview.
— Cónal Thomas (@ConalThomas) August 27, 2020
○ 725 new cases in last week, up slightly on previous week.
○ 28 people in hospital this morning, "a little bit concerning" says Reid.
○ Four people in ICU.
On a day when many of the country’s children are returning to school for the first time in almost six months, questions were asked about what happen if an outbreak was detected in a school.
Consultant Dr Abigail Collins told reporters she’s hopeful “schools won’t have to close…if that is necessary then we will take the appropriate action. I am hopeful it won’t be.
We will identify cases of Covid in children attending school. When someone has tested positive, we will take it forward.
She said: “Our priority is to not have a wide-sweeping initial approach to remove all children… that can be counterproductive.”
She added she hopes the interventions will be “more measured”, while it was emphasised at the briefing that all interventions in schools would be done on a “case-by-case” basis.
Reid, meanwhile, said a report due to be published later today on the impact of Covid-19, showed primary school children had been most affected by the restrictions.
He said that children with additional learning needs and or special needs are disproportionately affected and that anxiety levels for children may increase due to lack of routines and socialisation.
Reid added that 52,000 tests for Covid-19 had been conducted in the past week, with a positivity rate of around 0.18%. Despite that, there were 725 cases reported in the past week which is a slight increase on the previous week.
Anne O’Connor, chief operations officer with the HSE, meanwhile said that there’s been an increase in older people accessing mental health services, but they’re expecting more younger people to get in touch now that schools are beginning to return.
With reporting from Cónal Thomas at the HSE briefing in DCU
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You would think they would lockdown Dublin with yesterday’s cases, if they were being consistent
@The Upside-down Triangle:
They shouldn’t lockdown Dublin you seem to forget Dublin had 1.8 million people living there that’s only 1/25000 contracting the virus
@The Upside-down Triangle: Same boring comments everyday, You must get off on people losing jobs and crashing economies.
Major and highly populated cities are going to have higher numbers, its inevitable where human contact is unavoidable.
@David Lee: absolutely 150 million people worldwide have lost their jobs related to tourism
@The Upside-down Triangle: Dubs are like Hogan; arrogant and feel like they are too big to fall despite flouting regulations. A lockdown would do them good to bring them back to earth.
@Paul Cunningham: get a grip don’t be so ridiculous
@David Lee: well stated, like bunch of children playing by cat and mouse games, oh just because Kildare is locked down they should lock down Dublin too , what a joke and you’re completely right it’s going to have a Catastrophic effect on the economy and the amount of job losses , businesses closing down left right and centre , it’s not on we have to learn to live with it , and continue the show
@The Upside-down Triangle: Exactly what I thought
Kildare being in lock down has affected more than the residents of that county. Being over 70 we had just begun to enjoy our grandchildren’s company again after the long lock down. Our grandchildren happen to live in Kildare and so since 8th August they have been in a lock down situation and we have once again been unable to see them. We followed all the advice given. Now they are going back to school and obviously mixing with many other children where there is a risk that they may become infected which could be dangerous for us. Hopefully there will be a resolution to this horrible virus in the near future when we might have some normality in our lives.
Chairman of the Seanad, Michael McNamara responding to the Health Ministers careless mention of a second lockdown
@Anna Anna: The Chairman has been there for all the Special Covid Committee meetings and listened to the all the experts with opposing views, unlike the Health Minister who said he was unable to attend as he was too busy
@Anna Anna: that dude gets a semi with words like spike, sharp, lockdown, restrictions lol. I nearly got sick listening to him mention xmas and summer here. 6 months on people are sick hearing same things, fatique kicks in. I aint watching these guys doom@gloom daily, i will read up.. They seem obsessed with cases.. No credit on no deaths, hospitals ok..thing is we have months more listening to power tripping ego doom @gloom scenario people. Ffs throw us a bone lol.
@Anna Anna: Considering he, majority of cabinet and the 3 leaders in government told NPHET that national lockdown is a no go zone and they can’t return to it just last week, yes this is irresponsible.
@aidanshaw: these pastards are using psychological techniques like this to scare people. White lies or so they believe.
A lie always has consequences. Scaring people into being more careful is playing with peoples mental health.
@aidanshaw: I feel your pain , it’s relentless
Holiday to the canaries cancelled , was meant to be going this Saturday . Pissing rain and I’ve stomach flu today . Or a great week !
Why do we bother
The chairs at the press conference 2 m apart, chairs in school?….sure, whatever you can manage!…”the risks of keeping schools closed now outweigh the risk of Covid for children”…it’s not one or the other, they should ensure maximum restrictions to ensure the kids are as safe as possible from COVID and get on with their education…
@Spartacus Ireland: 5 months to come up with a plan to reopen schools and “shuffle the desks about a bit, sure you know yourself” was the best they could do.
@Tordel Back: it isn’t all just shuffling chairs you know. they made us put up a few signs and gave us money to pay for cleaners to wipe the odd door handle after the kids go home
0.18% of 52,000 is 94 people, yet 725 people were diagnosed, where did the other 631 people come from, or is the positivity rate actually 1.4%?
Am I missing something in the maths?
@D Mems:
thats a really good question. it couldnt be false positives its too high surely? Or is that they include contacts as suspected cases or what? i dont know tbh
@D Mems: I was about to mention them stats in a comment. It’s hard to know what the figures actually are when they state rates / amounts that are way off
@D Mems: The 0.18 is surely a miss print, probably ment to be 1.8%. The rate is 1.4%. But as it was 1.3% the other day and he quoted 2% I’m starting to think the rate he quotes may be for community and serial testing only. Its the only way I can make sense of the continuously higher precentage he quotes.
@NotMyIreland: *meant
Paul Reid should go out of his depth. Seven months with COVID -19 nothing has changed with Testing going into winter with no plan. Lack of communications from HSE is shocking.
@Aido: To be replaced by someone equally as out of their depth? This is the HSE management we are talking about!
what does this mean? “Our priority is to not have a widesweeping initial approach to remove all children… that can be counterproductive.” not to remove them from school is it?? well i would hope not. they have missed enough already. to remove them where, back home is that what she means? theyre not even making sense at this stage ffs..
@Domhnall O’Sullivan: small shed in the playground. obviously !
I’ve lost faith and don’t know what to believe since golfgate. if they hadn’t been caught sure they’d continue partying. they were mostly oul lads with underlying conditions. do they have access to a vaccine or treatment we don’t?
children need schools for positive socialization. as schools open we can expect more children to reach out for mental health issues…
have your say