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.
ABOUT €1 BILLION is expected to be spent on personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Irish health service this year, HSE CEO Paul Reid has said.
Speaking at the HSE’s weekly Covid-19 briefing, Reid said there would also be significant costs associated with testing and contact tracing, but the cost of not investing would be much higher in the long run.
Reid said costs are “at a scale that nobody could have foreseen” a couple of months ago.
“Our projections are that those costs will be likely over a billion in a year,” he stated.
Reid said nine million masks are needed in Ireland every week. To put this many masks in context, he said it’s the equivalent of the height of 11 Liberty Hall (about 59m/195ft) buildings.
Reid said 60 flights carrying over 12 million items of PPE arrived in Ireland last week, adding that masks and gowns remain the hardest items to get.
He said we are “definitely not” at the stage where we can stockpile items.
Reid added that he will commission a report next week that will examine how to develop a sustainable model for testing and contact tracing in the future.
The HSE intends to roll out its contact tracing app by the end of this month.
Intensive care
As of last night, 72 people with Covid-19 were in intensive care units in Irish hospitals, 55% less than the recent peak of 160.
Overall, 543 people with Covid-19 were in Irish hospitals last night, plus a further 196 suspected cases.
Anne O’Connor, HSE COO, said that 161 ICU beds were still available last night, and 1,242 general hospital beds, down from 1,680 beds last week.
O’Connor said the fact fewer general hospital beds indicates that more non-Covid patients are presenting at Irish hospitals, following concerns people who needed medical help were avoiding hospitals because of the pandemic.
As of Thursday, there were 310 delayed discharges from hospitals, mainly due to a delay in being able to transfer patients to residential care facilities due to outbreaks of the virus in these settings.
In excess of 2,200 people have now been recruited into the health service to help respond to Covid-19, including over 1,000 students, O’Connor added.
The death toll from the virus in this country now stands at 1,446, and the total number of confirmed cases here is 22,760.
Dr Colm Henry, HSE CCO, said about 12,000 people would have died to date if Ireland had not taken the preventative measures it did to combat the spread of the virus.
Henry confirmed that the number of healthcare employees who have died from Covid-19 remains unchanged at five, extending his sympathy to loved ones.
Just over 3,000 healthcare staff are currently on Covid-19-related leave. Henry said healthcare workers remain a “priority group” for testing.
Testing
Reid said all 30,000 staff and 28,000 residents in Ireland’s 577 nursing homes have now been tested.
Some 61,000 tests have been carried out in residential care settings to date.
An analysis of the results is currently being carried out but the indication is that the overall positivity rate of Covid-19 is low, Henry said, despite clusters in certain facilities.
Reid said there needs to be a “relentless focus and support” in terms of vulnerable groups, noting that these people are most affected by Covid-19 in Ireland and abroad.
In Ireland, 1,700 asylum seekers are still sharing rooms with non-family members, despite Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan previously stating that is not possible for people living in these circumstances to physically distance during Covid-19.
The panel today said that health officials are working closely with the Department of Justice to ensure residents’ safety and move them to self-isolation facilities where needed.
Reid added that Ireland is on track to have the capacity to carry out 100,000 tests per week by next week, noting that labs currently have the capacity to carry out 15,000 tests per day.
He said the average turnaround time from when the swab is taken to when a person receives their results is 2.4 days, but acknowledged that some people are waiting longer and said more needs to be done in this area.
Reid also stated that the health service is now in a position to commence some non-Covid-19 services in a safe way. He said cancer and cardiology services and procedures such as transplants would be among those prioritised.
“We can now commence non-Covid services in hospitals, but it won’t be easy,” he said, adding that capacity needs to be kept under 80% so hospitals are not overwhelmed.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
There is a serious opening for a company in Ireland to start making these kind of products, i’m talking about the likes of O’Neills , The former fruit of the loom workers and so. Support Irish by making in Ireland and buying Irish.win win situation
@Conor Noonan: not a hope Conor its a numbers game
@Frank Discussion: explain ??
They need to be made cheaply and that’s not possible with the cost of labor, rates, insurances etc here. We could never compete with the Chinese costs.
@Conor Noonan: to simplify Conor – if it costs a billion a year from China – it might instead cost 3bn ( likely more actually ) if we tried to manufacture identical quantities here – thats the reason Manufacturing has largely migrated to China in the past 20 years for products and goods -plus once the surge in demand tapers off in Ireland – the market to export manufactured goods would need to be able to compete with China – nobody else is going to pay multiple times the costs to Ireland for same product….the green jersey argument only works for a limited amount of time and the realities of numbers game kicks in again unfortunately – if they have scale and capacity to manufacture a mask for 20c and Ireland ends up at 1euro ( due to much much higher costs to make ) wages , energy etc etc – then the numbers just wont work no matter how much we may want to make stuff Irish only.
@Conor Noonan: how do you make it a win win, it would cost 3 times more to make them here
@Conor Noonan: O’Neills have already begun with surgical scrubs.
Could we not make the ppe ourselves?
@itzme: potentially, but it would almost certainly cost more than in bulk from South Korea/China.
@itzme: one of the biggest face mask suppliers is in Limerick but as they never got business here prior to crisis all masks are sold overseas
@Matthew Gleeson: Materials would probably be coming from the far east anyway so we still wouldn’t be self sufficient.
@Pat Tobin: there wasn’t enough big faces!!!!!
The testing and return of results is still not up to scratch! However, the PR spin is at a high level…….
@Daniel Kelly: it’s not to bad when comparing to some (UK USA etc)
@bmul: Agreed, but the UK and USA are the extreme of incompetence in relation to managing the virus. The Irish response is just highly incompetent.
@Daniel Kelly: Brazil , Belgium , belarus
@Daniel Kelly: Italy Spain France Sweden
@Daniel Kelly: I was tested 8 days ago and still awaiting result.
@bmul: New Zealand, Australia, Malta
@Daniel Kelly:
Says the know nothing hurler on the ditch!
China win win all the way
@MA Hend: South Korea is not China
@Michael Maher:
Ignorance is ignorance. To me the same.
@Michael Maher: so your English !! Well you speak it.
@Michael Maher: you daft, racist thumb.
Equivalent to the height of 11 liberty hall buildings!
What a strange analogy to describe nine million masks, did not know masks were measure in height, are the my flat on top of each other? 9 million masks at 1mm thick?
I think 9 million masks was a good enough description,
@Martin: It was dumbed down so the average Irish “Journalist” could understand it. If you ever listen to the quality of questions asked by these “journalists” at the press conferences you’d understand.
it’s looking a n little better everyday hopefully we will soon get back to something like normal
@☘: Wouldn’t hold my breath, look at what’s happening in Korea and Germany now. Henman infection rates rising. Bars and nightclubs have been shut in Seoul because of infection increase.
Most people I know who are not anti government/establishment think by and large and not perfect, that they are doing a reasonable job in the circumstances.
Apart from the amateur virologists who are safely ensconced miles from any frontline. With their ah sure aren’t they only doing what they are told spoofers line.
@Geraldine Glynn: /David?
Here is a post I put up about the lack of prioritising testing of nursing homes by the HSE and needed quick turnaround of results required. The need for nursing homes to know/plan for containment of the infection is really important due to the confined space multiple resident’s live in. This relates specifically to the nursing home my Mum resides in. However, the same issues is likely to occur in other nursing homes?
The nursing home has one positive covid-19 resident. The nursing home deals with dementia and has resident’s that wander from lodge sitting room to sitting room. The management team can’t put in place a plan to isolate resident/resident’s without knowing the exact number of cases? In the mean time people who are beyond capacity can wander from room to room and potentially have/spread the virus.
I’d guess all families of those that reside there are worried sick. Some test results back today all negative. However, still some pending test results that are unknown. Doesn’t look as if the HSE are giving priority testing to nursing homes. These people live in a confined space where the virus could spread rapidly through human interaction.
The nursing home is well managed and the nurse’s and carer’s are very good. How can the management team develop a plan of containment of the virus if they don’t know the number infected?
@Daniel Kelly: Never said it was perfect.
@Daniel Kelly: Oh and is it Daniel or Danielle.
@Geraldine Glynn: Depends on if I’m wearing a frock.
@Geraldine Glynn: On a more serious note they head’s of the HSE/Government are paid very handsomely to do their job’s. It is the job of any management team to identify dangers or hazards and put in place controls that mitigate the risk.
In relation to reducing/minimizing the entry of the virus through airport’s, ferry port’s and a small land border with Northern Ireland with x amount of roads’s they have FAILED! In relation to minimising the spread of the virus in nursing homes by priority testing/results to allow nursing homes to isolate the infected and contain the virus they have FAILED!
I wouldn’t put any of them in charge of a child’s birthday party, forget national emergency planning.
So much financial mismanagement. As much as PPE is needed it’s been totally exaggerated in terms of quantity needed. Most of this PPE will be wasted due to wrong distribution. This government are like headless chickens with no leader.
@paul christopher cox: how many masks do you think one nurse needs a day?
@paul christopher cox: I’m curious to know how you came to that conclusion. Educate us then why it’s exaggerated?
@paul christopher cox:
More BS from a sit at home know nothing buffoon.
@Dave O’Keeffe: Dave how many do you think they need? HSE ceo said there’s 9 million masks need a week? There’s roughly 82,000 nurses 15 thousand doctors and 25,000 living in nursing homes in Ireland that’s total of 130,000 now obviously more people than that will need a face mask well double that number for the sake of it that leaves 9 million divided by 260,000 that means each person uses 34 masks a week? Those maths really don’t add up to me fair enough a doctor or nurse in a covid ward will use something to those numbers but 260,000 people doing it?
@cian: The most basic surgical mask is effective for 20 minutes.. For an 12 hour shift after deducting breaks I need 22 per day. As for staff on covid wards needing them, All staff need them The idea of the mask is to prevent the caregiver spreading the infection
@cian: sorry 33 per day
Lots of opportunities for Irish companies here to take a slice of that pie.
€1 billion euro, how much of that is fee’s
@Dave Nomates: I don’t know if any of it belongs to Fee, whoever s/he is.
@Dermot McG: Pedantic are ya.
Irish companies are willing and able to step up. Irish costs are higher, our wages, insurance and other costs are higher than the countries making PPE, but on the other hand if you buy Irish, the money is staying in our economy and comes back through VAT, PRSI, Corporation tax, more emplyment etc. Surely €100 spent in Ireland is better for the economy than €100 spent abroad? And we are not stuck if other countries get into bother. Gowns can, and ARE being made in Ireland. https://studio.youtube.com/video/pgqNajheNCw/edit
Are those masks incinerated or can the material be recycled?
@Conor Heffernan: incinerated
It’s a blizzard of statistics.
I want to be a star
I’m going to have a car
And you’ll have to admit
I’ll be rich as sh.t
I’ll just sit and grin
The money will roll right in
A song by Fang covered by Nirvana
Can we canx all trains and buses, every train on Cork Dublin this week totally empty…just one very lonely driver, could save a fortune in costs and give all the rail crossing staff a holiday.
@Gina Carroll: I guarantee al of them are not completely empty. Thry don’t just carry people you know
Bono : “ feck off , I gave already ! “
have your say