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EVERY WEEK, TheJournal.ie offers a selection of statistics and numerical nuggets to help you digest the week that has just passed.
34: The number of councillors who voted in favour of Fianna Fáil’s Tom Brabazon becoming the new Lord Mayor of Dublin, beating independent councillor Anthony Flynn who secured 26 votes.
58,000: The number of households with excessive water usage that Irish Water planned to charge. The plans were delayed amid concerns over data protection and how to deal with customers that don’t have water meters.
€2,000: The fine a taxi company had to pay after it attempted to save money by switching a tamper-proof security seal on a meter.
48: The number of cases of “hazardous” oil leaking into the ground from underground heavy-duty electrical cables that ESB networks failed to notify local authorities about.
3,500: The number of complaints that the Food Safety Authority of Ireland received from consumers last year to its advice line, half of which related to unfit food and poor hygiene standards.
1,500: The number of jobs that Mastercard plans to create in Ireland over the next three to five years.
90: The percentage of people who have Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia and are unaware they have the condition - a serious genetic disorder that causes abnormalities of blood vessels.
10,271: The number of people in Ireland who were in emergency accommodation in January, according to the latest figures from the Department of Housing.
95: The number of oil barrels removed by the council from the MV Alta, the cargo ship that had been drifting at sea since September 2018 but ran aground in Ballycotton, east Cork during Storm Dennis earlier this month.
200: The number of residents in west Dublin that are seeking to reverse the recent decision of South Dublin County Council to grant planning permission for a large new centre and mosque for the area’s Muslim community.
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I feel more people would use them but the cost for regular use in a household wouldn’t be sustainable beyond one or two tests
@Maeve O’Sullivan: fact , we have a positive case in the household brought in from a primary school pod , advice is for us to do a test day 1/3/5 of the positive result , there are 4 more of us so that’s 12 antigen tests or the bones of 100 euro which is ludicrous! I certainly won’t be paying that , we will probably do 1 each on his 5th day of isolation and that’s it. Us adults are double jabbed and isolating with him to prevent others possibly catching it from us , thats the best we can do.
@Maeve O’Sullivan: Exactly. It’s just not feasible to be taking one or 2 a week. For a household of 4 you’d be or taking 20 or 30 a week. It really needs to be heavily subsidised.
@Ríain HenC: who advised? I am curious, when we had a case in the household the HSE sent each of us five free antigen tests and, as one person developed symptom (a cough), a free PCR test was done as well. This seems odd to me that the close contacts of the positive case were not contacted by HSE tracing which I assume whoever was contacted by contrast tracing passed on to them your close contact details. Or are you saying that HSE do not send free antigen test kits to close contacts of primary school children?
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: I’m not sure – and no expert but I feel that different advice is given – or changing advice – however as a generalized comment for any responsible person who wishes to check for themselves regularly is that testing kits are too expensive for any kind of regular use – and government advice for anyone socializing regularly is to test regularly!
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: My wife got the text and the instructions of the new guidelines. The text included a link to enter close contact details. But we did not get a phone call nor did we get any free antigen tests. Maybe being the weekend now we won’t get any post , and If we do get free antigens it will be next week which doesn’t really help with the advised testing times.
@Ríain HenC: You won’t pay 100e to monitor the spread of covid through your family . How often a situation is this likely and your complaining about is a small cost in the greater scheme of things. People are talking as if these are a grand a pop. Christ people will bitch and moan no matter what
@Daniel: Cop on.
@Daniel: That €100 could be someone’s food for the week. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to splurge that kind of money.
@Daniel: hardly a small cost Danny boy ! It’s an expense I don’t really need with the kids coming up to Christmas , guess what , we are all capable of telling each other if we feel symptoms , we are all doing the right thing and hiding away at home for a length of time to prevent anyone else getting it from us. Your comment is pretty sad really especially given you don’t know mine or any other families circumstance , also , the likes of Apple green or a local chemist pays €1 a pop for these tests and sells them for 7 and 8e each! So I’m not buying into the gauging, just looking after each other. Cheers
@Ríain HenC: I bought 20 tests from http://www.hhproducts.ie during the week cost was €79 just to have them handy. Seemed like a reasonable price to me.
Why would anyone use them, stop watching the news for a week! Best thing for the mind.
@Heisen berg1: Your week obviously ended today with you reading the Journal…
@Heisen berg1: weird comment on a news journal
@Heisen berg1: the irony of that comment. *Facepalm
Required in my workplace. Two colleagues with no symptoms whatsoever tested positive on seperate occasions with their daily antigen test, which was then diagnosed by a state PCR. They are a fantastic weapon against Covid for early asymptomatic cases to get detected prior to confirmation by PCR.
@a: we’ve had 2 positive cases in our house both picked up by antigen 1st, then confirmed by pcr. Antigen tests need to be used 5-10 days after close contact with a positive person. They are only accurate for that particular day. That’s why they are supposed to be used for 3 days after exposure to a positive case on Days 5,7,9. If showing any symptoms of covid 19, a pcr test is recommended but in our cases at home (both cases, sinuses were the symptom) an antigen picked it up straight away.
There only use is for money , if i go to the airport and say i have a negative test theyll say no the antigen isnt accurate you need a pcr , if i go to a nightclun and say im negative theyll say no the antigen isnt accurate , so why the FOOK are they being sold if there no benefit false positive this and false negative that , they either work or they dont if this pandemic is so serious then get rid of these half working “test kits”
@Ellie Mae: They do work.
@Ellie Mae: They do work. It’s very simple. Stop putting them up your ar@@ and put them up your nose instead.
@Ellie Mae: actually that’s not true. The US are accepting antigen tests carried out by a testing agency like Randox. Of course they aren’t going to accept one that you did yourself for travel when it’s easy to not do it properly so that you can get a negative result.
@Ellie Mae: They do work , it picked up my sons positive result perfectly which directed us to go get a PCR, which was also positive. I know that goes against your idea of “they don’t work” but clearly , they do.
@Ellie Mae: They do work and more and more are buying them. Look at what people are buying next time you are out. More using than admitting to it I’d say also at this stage.
@Ellie Mae: laugh – if you do a test yourself it will not be recognised for anything. If you go to an approved test center and they perform an antigen test they will give you a confirmation note. I am not aware that a negative antigen or PCR test is required or accepted for nightclubs or elsewhere – I thought it was a vaccination cert. I have no idea why the airport would be looking for any test result but you may need an approved test result, type determined by one’s destination country rules, to check in on a flight. My laugh at the bringing is at the idea that just “saying” you have a negative test with no proof would be enough. Lastly, the point is that of you are symptom free the antigen test helps to confirm that you have not got an infectious covid infection.
@Ellie Mae: First hand experience. Other half tested positive via. PCR. I bought a pack of 10 and tested myself over the following days. First day showed I was negative, the next 6 I was positive (with a day or 2 break) and last 2 negative again. The colour of the positive line was also the darkest at the peak of curve of my infection. They do work.
€10 for two tests. That’s not really unsustainable unless you’re a hypochondriac
@Clubhouse Barman.: How long does your test result stay valid before you need another one?
@Steve: i think it is 48 hours as it it recommended that symptom free close contacts leave 48 hours between each of the three recommended screening tests. However, it is possible to test negative in the morning and positive by evening if one is developing covid. So an antigen test can only detect an active (and infectious ?) Covid case at a point in time so talking about how long it is valid for is really a mute point, but tests are usually 48 hours apart and I think it used to be 48 hours for international travel at some point.
@Clubhouse Barman.: I tend to agree. Anyone with symptoms gets a free PCR test and any symptom free close contact gets five free antigen tests from the HSE. I do think there may be times when free antigen testing might be useful, such as visiting an elderly or vulnerable person but I cannot see why tests should be free to someone who just wants to put their mind at ease. There are other situations where symptom free individuals may want to test to protect others too. So there is some merit in free testing in some situations but I think antigen testing for no reason should not be free.
The Chief Medical Officer has asked the Government NOT to subsidise antigen-test kits because it may lead to false results ! What about issuing them to the 50k going to Aviva at turnstiles, could be a good start . Only in Ireland.
Get the booster!
At this stage we’re using PCR tests more often than antigen tests. The smallie has been sick 4 times since starting pre-school. The forthnightly ‘nose tickle’ and resultant missed work days are getting tiresome.
I use them once or twice a week as I work in a high risk workplace, before the tests I was constantly worried about getting it and infecting everyone in my home, feels a bit better having the antigen tests even though i know that they are not 100% reliable. The test is grand and just a bit of a tickle, the cost of them is the biggest deterent really.
Never even seen one
Yeah my political party pus for them…
*pays
@John Duggan: Which political party do you own then? And where does your political party get it’s money from?? Oh yeah – other people, so other people pay for the tests YOUR party buys.
They have to back me up against a wall to do the PCR test… No chance of me doing it to myself.
@Ann Neylan: it’s really not that bad. I found the antigen test more pleasant than the PCR, possibly because you do it yourself so have more control.
3 times a week for my job…
Nope nor will I unless the government does a uturn.They are too expensive
Never but we have some at home just incase we happen to be in a situation where we’re close contacts
No, i havent been socialising and work on my own.
I would use them if i thought id been exposed, have a pack of 5 just incase.
Im double jabbed and will get the booster when/if its made available to me.
Iv had a few PCR tests and have no issue getting more if i have symptoms.
have your say