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PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS this evening confirmed a further 520 new cases of Covid-19 and one death in Ireland.
This evening’s figures bring the total number of Covid-19 cases in Ireland to 231,119 and the number of deaths to 4,588.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn led tonight’s NPHET briefing, alongside the chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group Professor Philip Nolan, HIQA Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Health Technology Assessment Dr Máirín Ryan and Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory Dr. Cillian de Gascun, Medical Virologist.
Here’s the key points that were discussed at this evening’s briefing.
Chair of the Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group Professor Philip Nolan laid out how and where the virus is being transmitted.
“We do know where the majority of transmissions are occurring,” Professor Nolan said.
In the week of 8 March, 24% of cases have been attributed to community transmission, meaning that the source of the infection cannot be tracked.
11% of cases in that week are still under investigated. 3% are related to a healthcare setting and 2% are related to travel.
In the remaining 60% of cases, the virus was transmitted through close contact with a confirmed case. Of those, about one-third of the close contacts were associated with a wider outbreak.
“Our picture is dominated by a large number of cases within households,” Professor Nolan said.
He said that just under half of outbreaks are coming from private households.
Once an infection comes into a household, up to 35% of the contacts within the household will subsequently become infected, according to Nolan.
“The priority has to be to prevent those transmissions that introduce the disease into the household,” he said.
26 cases of the B1351 variant (which was first identified in South Africa) and nine cases of the P1 variant (Brazil) have now been recorded in Ireland.
The B1351 and P1 strains are considered to be variants of concern.
Looking at other variants, there have been 14 cases of B1525, 13 cases of P2, and five cases of B1526.
Director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory Cillian de Gascun said that those three variants are “variants of interest at this point in time”, as opposed to variants of concern.
The B117 variant, which was first identified in the UK, remains the dominant strain in Ireland.
“I think because we’re so concerned about these new variants, we’ve kind of forgotten about the significance of B117 and the challenge that brings in trying to control it,” De Gascun said.
“We were hit very early here in Ireland by B1117 and quite frequently,” he said.
De Gascun said that other countries in Europe are now reaching a level of B117 that Ireland arrived at several months ago.
The differences between how countries that saw a resurgence in Covid-19 in recent months handled their response is outlined in a new HIQA report that has been submitted to NPHET.
“It’s important to feed back to people how well they have done over the last two months in managing to bring down the incidence of disease in the country,” De Gascun said.
“Ireland was hit very early because of our close relationship with the UK and we’ve done really well to bring it down to this level,” he said.
“As people are planning their activities, it really is important that we consider B117 because it’s now our endemic virus.”
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said there are reasons to be optimistic about having an enjoyable summer.
Restrictions won’t have gone away completely, but as more people are vaccinated, it is hoped that cases will decline.
Health officials have set a target of giving over 80% of people a first dose by the end of June, as well as fully protecting people aged over 70 and those at a high risk of severe disease.
“Hopefully we will have disease levels at a much lower incidence overall,” Glynn said.
From that perspective, I think we can look forward to a good summer that’s premised on outdoor activities.”
“No one is saying that we can return to normal on the 1st of July,” he cautioned.
“What we’re saying is that if we can keep this under control, if we can protect those who are most vulnerable, if we can get the majority of the population at least partially protected, and if we proceed with the basic measures that we have had in place over the last year, we can be hopeful and optimistic for an enjoyable summer that’s much better than what we’ve experienced over the past six months,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s unreasonable to give people that level of hope and reassurance, albeit there are uncertainties as we have voice here on many occasions.”
Professor Nolan said that health officials “have some concern about a possible increase in incidence in children between zero and 12 years of age that we need to see how that pans out over the coming 10 to 14 days”.
“There’s a very high level of investigation of any concerns about transmission in schools, but at the same time, we are seeing possibly an increase in incidence in children of schoolgoing age, which we’ll have to monitor and analyze very closely over the coming fortnight,” he said.
Dr Glynn added that there is evidence pointing to cases being transmitted to children outside of schools themselves.
“It’s not something people will want to hear, but we are getting reports from colleagues in public health some of the issues that we’re seeing are to do with activities outside of school,” Dr Glynn said.
Playdates are being organised, multiple households are meeting up,” he said.
“Again, not the message people want to hear, but unfortunately that’s what our public health doctors are finding in a limited number of circumstances on the ground.
“Of course, the vast majority of parents in households are continuing to do the right thing, but there have been some reports of the like which I’ve described which have led to outbreaks then linked to children who attend schools and childcare facilities.”
You can sign up to TheJournal.ie’s coronavirus newsletter below. Tomorrow’s edition will include further details from the briefing.
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They can rob mine all they want. It went from a healthy six figure sum in 2008 to the grand figure of €26,000. That new figure is bang up to date as the statement arrived today.
I very much doubt I’m the only one.
Bet M. Noonan’s went up over the same time frame
Did you diversify when shit hit the fan?
Yes there is, the government will steal some private pension money to prop up public pensions
Also. Many PS retire before 65 on gold plated pensions and continue working in either PS or private sector. Not just politicians going to Europe but CEOs of state boards, Gardaí, teachers, nurses.
We should apply a Retired Public Service Pension Levy to cap pensions at 60k and significantly reduce them is the retiree is still working- at least until they reach retirement age
You need to either change your anti-public servant record or do your homework. To retire on a pension of 60K, a public servant would have to have 40 years service and an finishing salary of 120 grand. Less than 2% of the public sector are on that final salary and not all of even that tiny percentage would have 40 years service.
Were, I”ll be on about €50k after 25 years in the PS and I was told by Cornmarket that my pension will be €12500 a year when I retire after 40 years!
Not fun is it. Most PS don’t have pensions of that size but many do and continue to work.
‘Many do’
So, less than 2% is ‘many’ now, is it?
You really need to get that chip off your shoulder.
The 60k plus pensions may be 2%. But the pension plus pvte sector work is a lot more
Would it be more than a private sector pension of 60K plus private sector work?
There’s almost no pvte sector pensions of 60k. Would need a fund of €2 million to support such a pension
Croke Park, are you even reading the comments being put to you? There is almost no public sector pensions of 60k either!!
Dear god. I’m talking about the PS workers who retire at 50+, on a pension of 40k+, who take up employment in the pvte sector at 40k+
In some cases both payments are much higher. I personally know more than 10 “pensioners” in this category
My Dad is a retired public servant I can assure you it not a whopping gold plated pension so stop peddling lies.
This government has stolen private savings. This discourages anyone from saving into a pension fund. This leaves the problem to our children to fund from their taxes. Assuming that us that there is anything left after paying off the national debt which we have so generously left them.
Isn’t that what all tax is.
This is happening at the moment.
We need to stop thinking of wealth in terms of money. Money itself is as close to worthless as makes no difference, and saved money worth even less again, because what we call money may be currency, but in economic terms it’s actually not quite money. Money is anything which satisfies three criteria: a means of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value. From this definition, we can see that our currency is not money in economic terms, as due to inflation money does not represent a good store of value. This may seem like nit picking, but it is a very important point.
As currency does not represent a store of value, to look to pension funds to provide us with wealth for aging populations is a quite ludicrous notion. Gone are the days of the gold standard and similar such systems, so the future value of currency is based primarily on the economic strength of the issuing jurisdiction at any given time. Putting EUR 100 into a pension fund today, compounded at 2% per annum over 35 years means that when you cash out that initial EUR 100 you will have just shy of EUR 200. This may seem like a good investment, but what will EUR 200 be worth in 35 years? What will it be worth in 35 days for that matter?
To provide for the elderly, the country requires wealth. Currency may be a useful measure of this wealth, but in reality wealth is the ability of an economy or society to produce and provide necessary goods and services. The western world (and indeed much of the rest of the world) is currently witnessing extremely high unemployment rates, yet the global economy still appears quite capable of providing us with what we need. Technological advances will only see demand being met with an ever decreasing necessity for labour input.
There is no looming pension crisis. The crisis we face is a systemic crisis, and is easily resolved by adapting our monetary and governance systems to suit the conditions of the modern world, and stop trying to adapt the modern world to suit archaic systems.
Your example of 2pct compounded over years bringing 100Eur to 200Eur, but purchasing power of that having eroded is quite correct.
However, generally people will not put money on deposit over such a large span of time. And deposit interest rates often do not keep pace with inflation.
That is why pensions over the long term are invested in funds based on commodities, equities and property. These on average will at least match or beat inflation in the long run. Pension funds only move to deposits close to retirement as they are safer (can only go down in financial/bank crash), albeit with an annual return that might not keep pace with inflation.
As for an economy (or monetary zone) with high inflation (and therefore rapidly devaluing currency with reduced purchasing power per unit of currency), this is likely to coincide with rapidly increasing value of assets and investments underpinning pension funds, at least local ones.
Therefore while pension funds are not safe, there are inherent safeguards that mitigate against them becoming worthless , but only on average and over the long term.
It does not prevent problems occurring due to fund mismanagement or economic crashes.
I know, the rate it was just a simple example to illustrate a point, and I chose 2% as this is generally the target inflation rate. The point I was making isn’t that pension funds are worthless to individuals, as under our current system they certainly make sense for individuals, but to the detriment of society as a whole unfortunately. Few people, journal readers in particular it seems, appear to make the link between the derided bond holders or high property prices & their own retirement nest egg.
The point about the weakness of currency still stands. Our retirees could well end up controlling the S&P 500 and the entirety of Australia’s mineral deposits, but if society does not have the ability to provide adequate care and sufficient food, they will starve like the rest of us. The true wealth of a nation is not it’s stock market or pension funds (thank Christ as we had the worst pension funds in Europe until Poland pulled this little trick), but on our ability to produce and provide. Pension funds are storing away today’s wealth to provide for tomorrow, but today’s wealth may well be worthless tomorrow, while today people starve because all the wealth is being put away for a rainy day.
Since time immemorial, the economics of scarcity was all that mattered, as scarcity was all we had and all we knew. But what do we do when we have enough of everything for everyone? Do we hamper production to ensure scarcity to safeguard the system, or do we adapt to the economics of abundance, and how do we make the transition?
I dont care too much for money ,money cant buy me love.
Silent,,sounds like you understand the monetary system…central banks/fiat currency/fractionalised reserve banking etc etc..note the current move by the BICS to asset based currency..the Chineese rmb.bartering..the assault by US FED on bitcoin etc etc..the world is changing..best advice to all is ‘isolate yourself from the state as far as you are able’… “interesting times” ahead i think
I don’t agree Mike, we do not need to isolate from the state, we are the state. That’s a lot of the point I’m, unsuccessfully I fear, trying to make. Corporations and so called elites may control the power, political types may control the laws, but we are the society, we are the labour, we are the innovators, we are everything. Isolation achieves nothing, participation can change everything.
Things changing may mean interesting times ahead, but doesn’t necessarily mean bad times. I don’t believe this is all some big evil conspiracy, just that the world around us is developing faster than we really know what to do with, and we need to learn to adapt to these changes as a society and not just as individuals. If we look at education for example, the leaving cert is still primarily focused on learning off information on a variety of topics; is this really necessary in a world where no child will remember not being able to access an absolute encyclopedia of knowledge via a device in their pocket? Similarly, the monetary system is also something that has been overtaken by time really; it doesn’t seem to working very well for many societies globally at the moment. But it is just a system, made by man to serve man, and we always have the power to change it when the conditions around us demand it.
Just because things don’t work the way that perhaps they should doesn’t mean sinister forces are corrupting proceedings, any system controlled by and involving humans will always be imperfect because humans are delightfully imperfect.
Hi,silent, your comments are laudible but idealistic and depend on,the people, understanding and then seeking a change..a big ask..i use the state as a term which i see as the govt/mandarins which might not have an agenda that is not in the interests of the many but selected for the few..so i say..during times of uncertainty protect yourself whilst sharing your knoweldge with others so they may form their own view and pos petition for change. what i see is secrecy at all levels and propeganda etc..alternate views to the official one is characterised as ‘conspiracy theories’ eg mad cap/deluded etc..all revolves around the monetary system which is ‘not fit for purpose’ but is exploited by the few who ‘know’…pardon grammar/spelling
Mike, just read over my last comment and I meant to say “Corporations and so called elites may control the power” when I meant to say they control the money – isn’t that telling that in spite of all the views I’ve just expressed I still confuse money and power! And there’s more than the few who know, many know and play the system to their advantage, from the person who under declares income to get their kid a college grant, to the one who gets inside info on a pharma patent to make the GDP of a small nation. It’s game theory, we all take our own optimal position. Whatever vested interests exist, they’ve either not tried, or failed in their attempts, to hinder the development of the past century which has witnessed more innovation, and a greater rise in living standards, than the entirety of human history had achieved previously. We are not living in scary times, just confusing times. If we just embrace our achievements and potential, there really is no limit to what we can achieve.
The guberment has no money, you have money, the guberment needs money. Guess how it ends.
They all live happily ever after?
I’m thinking of going to Newry and open a bank account transfer all my saving which is pittance into that account and direct debit my monthly savings into this account anyone know if this is legal or not ?
Of course it’s legal, it’s your money. But it will be a GBP account you open so you will be exposing yourself to currency risk, to hedge which will be costly. Risk can obviously work out in your favour or against you, but over a long enough period you will almost certainly witness dips in value.
Believe you have to declare it for DIRT & tax purposes. If you are planning to do direct debit make sure it is all tax legal or the friendly revenue service will knock on your door.
Pension can’t be moved. Property can’t be moved. We are owned by the government.
The PS pension train wreck is coming. Any chance the govt could calculate an actuarial value on each PS pension as if they were to retire today and park that notional sum at interest equal to inflation. Switch them all to a DC scheme with govt matching 5%?
You need to work 40 years to get a PS salary and mine will be €12,500 a year. Give over!
That’s the new career earnings based pension Tommy. Another example of Howlin pulling the ladder up after him. You lads now pay a public service pension levy ostensibly to pay for your own pension but in reality it’s to keep the current crop of PS pensioners in the style they’ve become accustomed to. You lads will NEVER claim back what you’re paying in now. If PS pple march on the Dáil in protest about this daylight robbery, I’ll march beside ye. It’s a total joke what they’ve done. Not only burdening our kids with crazy national debt but also burdening young PS workers with a levy they’ll never collect and raiding what any reasonable person would deem sacrosanct private pensions. We’re entering Robert Mugabe territory.
Get your pension and go to paddy powers and put it on The Dubs to win the All Ireland for the next 10 years
Why would anyone wish to continue putting their hard earned (and already super taxed) earnings into a pension pot for the Gov to rob??? Off to open a UK account….
Money paid by a PAYE worker into a pension fund is given relief at the marginal rate. Effectively, you put the money in tax free. They get the tax when you eventually retire and start to drawdown your pension.
They get tax each and every year you save your money!
No. Because none of the heirachy benefit, so it wont ever be thought of
Why not nationalise private pensions and give guaranteed 4% return. Funds could be used for stimulus. It would be better than the system we have now. It just seems to be luck if you happen to retire with a high value pot. it’s cyclic. Although Could we trust the government not raid it when things go tits up again. Hmmm
Private pension funds are just that, Private. The government have no right to take it for any reason. If they want to set up a scheme that people can pay into instead and guarantee 4% thats fine
Defined Contribution Schemes that will fund only a fraction of a DB scheme should not have to pay the pension levy.
Isn’t the nice lady from ifg pensions engaged in scare mongering and pr. You should really offer a bit more explanation about how such a person gets to write the article in the first place.
Just death
The pension industry charge extortionate fees and often give very poor performances. They rely on the fact that countless years will pass before the pay date.
Are pension funds a waste of money? So much is lost in fees and commissions. I think I might be better off running the fund myself. Diverse blue chips from around the world etc.
have your say