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THE DEPARTMENT OF Education has said that as of now, it is not ordering all primary and secondary schools to close over the coronavirus outbreak.
A large volume of rumours had circulated on WhatsApp and social media today suggesting that an announcement was imminent about all schools nationwide to be closed for a period of weeks.
In a statement released this afternoon, the Department of Education said it was liaising closely with the Department of Health but that schools were not being closed.
The Department is believed to have made the statement this afternoon in response to the large amount of misinformation being spread on social media and WhatsApp today.
Have you gotten a message on WhatsApp or Facebook or Twitter about coronavirus that you’re not sure about and want us to check it out? Message or mail us and we’ll look into debunking it.WhatsApp: 085 221 4696 Email: answers@thejournal.ie
So far, there have been 24 cases of Covid-19 confirmed in the Republic of Ireland and a further 16 in Northern Ireland.
The Department said that public health professionals will contact schools if there is any action to be taken.
Schools “should not take unilateral action,” the department said.
“The Department is deeply conscious of the significance of decisions concerning school closures, and the potential impact any such decisions would have on parents, families and the wider community,” it added.
This is an evolving situation and the health advice is being updated on a daily basis. The Department of Education and Skills and Department of Health will continue to work closely together on this issue.
Any decision to close schools will be made on public health advice, the department said.
“There is no such advice at this point,” it said. “It is essential that any decisions regarding responses to Covid-19 are proportionate, necessary and based on specific public health advice. No other response is appropriate.”
Escalating measures put in place to help prevent the spread of the virus and protect the public have been put in place by a number of bodies. Today, Trinity College Dublin said it would be closing the Book of Kells exhibition and that lectures would be held online.
WhatsApp rumours
President of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) Alan Mongey says he has been fielding queries about rumours that have been flying around.
“Just from talking to other principals around the country and getting messages from them, whether it be WhatsApp groups or emails, there seems to be a lot of information floating around that something imminent is going to happen,” he said.
“Someone sent me a press clipping from the Connaught Telegraph website that suggested something like that might happen, but it’s certainly not something we’ve heard from the department itself [or] that it’s something that’s imminent.”
“It’s the rumour mill going into overdrive at the moment.”
Asked whether principals have been in contact about potential closures, Mongey says this is also happening but that parents should be aware that they will contacted directly by schools if there are any major changes:
“Parents are increasingly becoming concerned about the widespread spread of it around but schools have been keeping parents well informed. Every school will have what we call their management information systems where they’re able to text out information very quickly to all parents within a school.”
“So they’ll text the right information directly and provide a link to either documents that the department have provided with us or the steps that schools are starting to take.”
In a statement this afternoon, Fianna Fáil’s education spokesperson Thomas Byrne said that the Department of Education must ramp up its contingency planning.
“While I hope that serious disruption will not take place, it is important that plans are put in place well ahead of time,” he said.
At last night’s press briefing, Department of Health chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan described the lockdown measures in Italy as “pretty severe restrictions, from an economic point of view from a social point of view”.
He said these measures would cause “major economic and social impacts within that country, for people living there it must be very challenging”.
When asked why Ireland has not put in place similar restrictions yet, he said the government has to ensure it does not implement measures too early, as they may lose the public’s compliance if the situation continues for a long time.
****
There is a lot of false news and scaremongering being spread in Ireland at the moment about coronavirus. Here are some practical ways for you to assess whether the messages that you’re seeing – especially on WhatsApp – are true or not.
STOP, THINK AND CHECK
Look at where it’s coming from. Is it someone you know? Do they have a source for the information (e.g. the HSE website) or are they just saying that the information comes from someone they know? A lot of the false news being spread right now is from people claiming that messages from ‘a friend’ of theirs. Have a look yourself – do a quick Google search and see if the information is being reported elsewhere.
Secondly, get the whole story, not just a headline. A lot of these messages have got vague information (“all the doctors at this hospital are panicking”) and don’t mention specific details. This is often – but not always – a sign that it may not be accurate.
Finally, see how you feel after reading it. A lot of these false messages are designed to make people feel panicked. They’re deliberately manipulating your feelings to make you more likely to share it. If you feel panicked after reading something, check it out and see if it really is true.
TheJournal.ie’s FactCheck is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles. You can read it here. For information on how FactCheck works, what the verdicts mean, and how you can take part, check out our Reader’s Guide here. You can read about the team of editors and reporters who work on the factchecks here
With reporting from Rónán Duffy, Michelle Hennessy and Christine Bohan
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A truly moving insight into the human side of this ‘ we are so lucky to have had a team from Taoiseach to Porters who actually cared
Let’s not let these Nurses & Doctors down by being complacent
@Mark Walsh: The same Taoiseach who wouldn’t give the nurses a pay rise, last year but then has the audacity to call them heroes without capes?
@Mark Walsh: if Leo had really cared he would have blocked those going to or returning from Cheltenham, ditto for the Italian rugby match, ditto for travel from affected areas like Northern Italy.
You can spin for Leo as much as you want but he squandered the advantage of our island status leading to many deaths that didn’t have to happy.
Letting vulnerable die unnecessarily is Leo’s hallmark, just look at his response to the Irish Air Corps chemical exposure tragedy.
Oh and he also let vulnerable old people die en-mass, how very caring of him.
@Gavin Tobin: I’m sorry, but what does the Air Crops chemical exposure case have to do with Covid-19? Please, stop trying to politicise and shoe-horn your personal agenda into this and have some respect for the front line workers and those of us who lost family to Covid.
@Mark Walsh: Agreed with everything u said till you brought Leo Vanity socks into it……the lad who gave we are all in this together speeches, yet these lot in the dail sat on their over paid backsides during the pandemic on full pay and expenses and of course all of his lovely PR photo ops to fool the masses into thinking he was of any use…….makes me puke
@Mark Walsh: Every medical staff in the country were amazing, but Leo was only a spin doctor.
@Gavin Tobin: Agreed, Leo reacted to the situation when it was consensus to do so rather than showing any actual foresight. That final week pre-restrictions of comments and actions around the parades, nursing homes and Cheltenham will be remembered as particularly ill-judged.
It could have been much worse of course when you look internationally but it was a 5/10 performance from our leadership where they did the minimum required when the evidence was undeniable at a stage that was too late to save lives but timely enough to not be seen as an overreaction by sections of the public.
I wouldn’t say we’re “lucky” to have that kind of leadership, it’s the very least we should expect.
@Gavin Tobin: typical SF supporter every chance you get you criticise the Gov, as if SF were a perfect party, haBlving looked at what happened up north at Story’s funeral I am very relieved they are not in power down here, they are frightening, in their pursuit of driving this republic into the arms of a failed entity which will drag us down and down. Then you would have something to really criticise.
@acallkelly: Don’t know how to break it to you but I’m a card carrying member of FG.
Call their HQ to verify.
Don’t think Leo will survive as leader to see his Taoiseach rotation.
It was humbling to see the effect this virus has had on our healthcare workers. They truly are heroes and deserve every recognition for the work they continue to do. Seeing inside St James’s means we can put a human face on what for most people unaffected, are just numbers. So sad to see people dying alone and for their relatives who can’t say goodbye properly, it must be so heartbreaking.
@Johnny 5: why were rte and their cameras allowed on the ward while ordinary people could not visit their loved ones
@Richard Russell:
Beacuse without a record we wouldn’t know what had happened. Cameras’s are really important for showing future generations. Just look at all the WW 2 footage, how much would we understand that war if it hadn’t been filmed?
@Richard Russell: What Dave said. Unfortunately in the world we live in there are still many who call this a flu, a pandemic, a hoax, a disease created by 5G! Video footage and interviews with those at the coal face, those who survived Covid 19 and those who watched their loved ones die, are very important evidence to counter the future arguments of the tinfoil hat brigade, who unfortunately through the medium of social media, are getting the messsge out that the hospitals were empty and this was all just a scam.
@Dave Barnaville: oh that’s alright do once you’ve something to show your grandkids on a Saturday night. Absolute tool
@Anthony Whelan: How is he a tool? He made a completely valid point. Yet you resort to name calling because you have no counter-argument.
@Anthony Whelan: I believe you’re the tool here. It was very necessary and every man and woman in the country should watch it. The sheer compassion and humanity that our nurses treated our fellow citizens under the extremists of conditions and stress is astounding. Even in death, they treated them as people and as someones father, mother, brother, sister, grandchild.
The documentary should be a reality check to those who thought the virus was a hoax or wasn’t that bad
@Richard Russell: Funny I thought the same thing. Camera crews allowed into ICU at the height of a pandemic caused by a deadly and highly infectious virus? It doesn’t sit right with me. ICU patients with symptoms caused by Covid-19 or anything else are very vulnerable. ICU patients who went in to the unit without Covid-19 were among those most likely to get infected by Covid-19.
It’s a real slap in the face to families who could not be with their loved ones for the last moments while camera crews were allowed in to film. It can’t have been easy for staff trying to work with camera crews around, it would be trying in ICU without a camera crew at the best of times. If any of my family had been affected I would have told the camera crews where to go if they had asked to film and I would have complained to the hospital and HSE for letting camera crews in during a pandemic.
@Richard Russell: now good question
@Philip Kavanagh: Well said !!!
@Maurice O Neill: there wasn’t a spike. The protesters didn’t cause any wave like everyone expected. The selfish money hungry w&nkers who went to Cheltenham, they were the cause of a huge spike and the spread of it nationwide so condemn them instead . Anyone who went should be ashamed of themselves.
This was an extremely emotional documentary, beautifully shot and handled by all involved. Lisa Connolly was for me the hero of the piece. While the nurses and doctors etc were doing their job Lisas attention to Patrick was pure love. She is certainly a beautiful person.
@Gerry Ashe: I agree Gerry. She was amazing.
@Johnny 5: Spike aside Healthcare workers should never have been left vulnerable again because of a protest
@Maurice O Neill: what about all the healthcare workers who will have to suffer cos of your great leader holding rallies and telling his deluded brainless mob that they dont need to wear masks……wonder if those protesters you are whining about wear in support of Trump would ya be so quick
Facemasks are not mandatory on public transport . I found that yesterday after contacting Dublin bus . Capacity has increased , but the legislation for face masks is not there yet. While everyday We have to listen to the CMO & statisticians demonising travel abroad, public transport increased capacity & no face masks mandatory. What sense does it make ?
Also, I question the timing of this documentary and its public endorsement by so many politicians. People are already in a frail mental state due to lockdown, pandemic and isolation from their family as well as mass unemployment and no access to essential healthcare for anything than covid. Is this really helpful or just compounding to our already heightened anxiety?
@Isabel Oliveira: who cares if it isn’t in legislation yet just wear the bloody thing!
@Isabel Oliveira: Face coverings are mandatory but the measures to police it or impose sanctions for not wearing them are not in place, typical of our government’s response to everything to do with this pandemic. Just wear one to protect yourself and everyone around you, especially as capacity on bus and luas is being increased.
@Sam Harms: i care as I have to work from the office 3 times per week and I rely on the bus. Masks are only effective if most people are wearing them . They’re not . Yesterday hardly anyone with masks but me and yet bus capacity was increased .
@Kevin Lonergan:
Let’s help each other by getting this clear.
Wearing a facemask does not protect the wearer. It protects everyone else. Any questions?
@Isabel Oliveira: I’m on the bus right now and everyone who got on is wearing one. And bus drivers have started refusing to allow people on if they aren’t wearing them. Which of course brings out the selfish people who say they aren’t doing it until it’s in legislation.
@Sam Harms: I’m also in the bus right now and over 50% are not wearing them .
@Maurice O Neill: Actually, there was no spike after those protests.
@Johnny 5: it doesn’t mean the protests should have been allowed go ahead. Government and Garda too afraid to shut it down.
I gathered from Claire Byrne and other commentators the timing of this excellent and very moving documentary was deliberate. People needed a wake-up call. Hardly anyone has been wearing masks in supermarket queues or on public transport. We really will get a serious surge if this continues, like in North Rhine Westphalia and Leicester. Real mistakes were made in the beginning in allowing flights to come in from Northern Italy, and the Cheltenham debacle, and the earliest cases here all had a connection with Italian travel. We could have slowed the spread by several weeks if we had been able to close borders like New Zealand.. We are in the Common Travel Area, and the EU, and cannot close our borders to travel and passenger flights. We can only exercise personal responsibility. We will hear this evening about the long term effects of this illness. I have read it can take 15 years to recover from ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome)
@lynda kennedy: well said. If the RTE programme does not move you to take personal responsibility, you must be an idiot. Simply.
@NotMyIreland: have you not seen the 7 day average increasing over the past week?
Yet at 9pm yesterday gemmaroid was hosting a webinar on the ‘scamdemic’. What a patriot she is!
Why were they allowed on to wards with their cameras while ordinary people could not visit their loved ones, some died alone or give a proper burial
@Richard Russell: according to the credits at the end they supplied or paid for their own PPE and had received training. Whilst ordinary people could not conduct regular visits, the hospitals had a visitation policy in place for end of life situations, that was shown in the programme where the elderly man visited his dying wife, it was even quoted upon in the article
‘I’m not going to tell you what he said, but there was some much love in that room, even with all the PPE’, I think from a staff nurse called Gavin
@D Mems: supplied and paid for it out of taxpayers money?
@David Duffy: so they could deliver a tribute to many taxpayers who died without their loved ones.
@David Duffy: I’d say probably a combination of the license fee and the general advertising revenue in RTE, just like all the other programmes RTE make, they even put it up at the end ‘Funded by your TV License Fee’.
I was parked outside a well known pub in ballsbridge yesterday evening and social distancing was left at the front door. It’s still here people let’s not forget. I know people want to enjoy themselves but if you didn’t watch this last night then catch it on the rte player. And then maybe just maybe people might understand why all of the restrictions were put in place
@Maurice O Neill: What spike?
Truly heartbreaking, maybe after seeing that we’ll re think all the covid 19 jokes and shows based around this awful plague it wasn’t and isn’t funny .
Healthcare is not Politics.
Please stop reducing the efforts of these amazing professionals. What was shown clearly last night was regular people, stepping up to do a job that they never expected to do. On a scale that nobody could have planned for. They undertook additional tasks and challenges with a grace that embarrassed me to watch.
Thank you all.
Should be prescribed watching for those taking foreign holidays this summer.
Wonderful documentary showing the coal face of the pandemic – the wonderful health care workers whose empathy and treatment of their patients even after death was very moving as were their stories of how their sleep is being disturbed by what they have witnessed and experienced. We can never thank them enough for the danger they put themselves into so they may save lives and give compassionate care to those at end of life stage. This documentary is a must view as it is a very vivid lesson and eye opener to those who may feel they are immune.
Propaganda piece.
Timing is terrible as your target audience was in the pub last night!
@Ross Dunne: Speak for yourself. Its on tonight as well so your comment is pointless.
@Ross Dunne: or on the bus or train without a mask!
@Mary Ann Sweeney: I speak from what I witnessed while I was working last night, the people in the pubs couldn’t give a toss about this.
@Johnny 5: Dream on
@Maurice O Neill: Back up your now deleted comment with evidence or you’re talking crap.
@Johnny 5: That’s free speech in Ireland today now for you
@Maurice O Neill: So you have no evidence to back up your statement? Thought so. Free speech comes with responsibility not to spread fake news. That’s probably why your comment was removed.
Frontline workers should be exempt from tax cuts.
@NotMyIreland: Here we go with the fake news reply
This film should be shown prior to public protests, marches etc.
@Maurice O Neill:
Pathetic attempt at dog whistle
Maurice old chap?
Spike what spike
Back up with facts!
@Kerry Evans: you sure there was not even one case of the disease spreading?
Ireland is not immune from the virus. Nowhere is.
The world may be run in the interests of different competing capitalist ruling classes. Who base their power on the state they control. The virus, however, is only partially deflected by the slightly differing measures adopted by these states.
All states have the same over-riding aim. To protect the profits and wealth of the rich.
All working people have a different aim. To protect themselves, their families, communities and society in general.
Worker opposition grows as coronavirus spirals out of control
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/06/30/pers-j30.html
Some commentators have said that EU rules allow for temporary suspension of free movement in an emergency, but we did not take advantage of that, and anyway, the Common Travel Area would have made it pretty pointless.
@Johnny 5: I’m sure absolutely no one spread the disease that day….one case of spreading is one too many.
He
@CarlAnne Greene: heartbreaking, as an underpaid health care worker while we all do our jobs often like a vocation proper remuneration would be welcome and deserved
@CarlAnne Greene: I hate the term hero as applied to carers, whether family carers or carers in hospitals, care homes, or communities. To me it is a means for general society to disassociate, to set carers apart and on a pedestal as something other, something special, or super human. It’s much easier to call carers heroes, only doing what they do out of personal higher calling to care for others, than recognise them as regular people the same as anyone else pushed beyond extraordinary limits who need support and proper financial compensation for the role they play in society. A clap in the Dáil doesn’t pay bills.
@CarlAnne Greene: do most nurses work three shifts per week ?
have your say