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THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD consider reinstating its advice for people to work from home where possible as the incidence of the virus continues to grow.
The incidence of Covid-19 is very high and increasing at a concerning rate, the Chief Medical Officer has told the Minister for Health.
In his latest letter to the Minister for Health, published this afternoon, Dr Tony Holohan said NPHET recommended that the government should consider extending the use of Covid certificates in settings where there is a “high risk of transmission through close contact or other activities”.
There should be ongoing communication with employers and employees around protective measures for people who do need to attend their workplace, he told Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly.
Public health experts are concerned that the number of patients with Covid-19 in hospital and in ICUs is remaining high as cases of the virus increase across all age groups up to 75-year-olds, with a particularly rapid rise among 19 to 24-year-olds.
Dr Holohan said that demand for Covid-19 tests is very high and increasing, with the positivity rate from community tests rising from 7% in late September to 18% in recent days.
“The impact of the recent booster vaccination on those aged 80 and older is evident with this being the only age group in which incidence is declining,” Dr Holohan said.
“The growth rate of cases is uncertain but is currently estimated at +3% to +5% per day,” he said.
The numbers of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in hospital and ICU remain high and, over recent days, there has been an increase in both the total number of hospitalised cases as well as the number of newly confirmed cases in hospital each day.
“Given the recent trajectory in terms of the disease profile, these indicators of severe disease may increase further in the coming weeks and will require ongoing close monitoring.”
He said the number of cases is putting a very significant additional burden on non-Covid healthcare services.
“Mortality related to Covid-19 is relatively constant at approximately 5 deaths per day, or 150 deaths per month. This may increase, given the very high case counts, although the impact of booster vaccination in older age groups should mitigate against this.”
The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) advised the government to focus on communicating the public health measures that are in place and supporting adherence to those measures, as well as implementing some additional measures, including the change in advice regarding working from home.
NPHET plans to review the situation again in two weeks and give “further consideration to a range of issues, including the upcoming festive period”.
The 14-day incidence rate has continued to grow, rising from 466 cases per 100,000 people in the middle of October to 676 a week ago and to 952 as of Tuesday.
In the first week of November, 173 outbreaks of Covid-19 were recorded, including 20 new outbreaks in residential institutions and 10 in hospitals.
However, because HSE Public Health is prioritising the investigation of outbreaks in settings like nurshing homes, hospitals, and residential care, outbreaks in other settings may be less likely to be identified, the letter said.
34 outbreaks linked to schools were notified last week, but 32 of those occurred during May and June and were being notified retrospectively, it said. 24 outbreaks were reported in workplaces.
The full letter is published on the government website.
Below is an extract from the letter outlining the recommendations and advice that NPHET has sent to the Minister for Health.
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Shameful waste of tax payers money this government has to go
Deplorable. No wonder the country’s policies are backwards
@GooseSkipGoose: Asylum doesn’t work, you suppose to seek asylum in the first safe country you reach, However most transit through EU countries to get here.
@The long walk home☘️: Bertie Ahern brought that in in the Dublin Treaty, people didn’t realise then how things would work out. It’s definitely a no go under the current climate for the Country’s around the Mediterranean that’s why it’s happening.
country is a joke look after your own
@Mark Campbell: so we shouldn’t accept any asylum seekers? Any immigrants of any kind?
@GrahamMManning: and of course require our own to return from all over the world to settle back here in Ireland where we can take good care of them.
@Gavin Conran: perhaps even their descendants?
State needs to sort itself out, put more resources to dealing with these cases. Provide some timely interventions to either send these people home or to provide them with asylum here and help integrate them. Throwing money away in this, in a week, how much could be saved on dealing with cases! Or maybe I should buy a guest house and get pally with Chazza and his pals in the dept!
@ThatLJD: give em a pps number and a job let them live like everyone else and pay their way
@Eamonn Roche: Great but where will they live?
@Eamonn Roche: So do away with our visa system entirely and allow anyone who wants to come to Ireland to do so as long as they work? The only legal basis for asylum seekers to be in Ireland is for the determination of their claim for asylum. The top two claimants are two non-E.U. European states, Albania and Georgia. They have a 99% and 97% rejection rate respectively. The next two claimants are Zimbabwe and Nigeria with an 82% and 94% rejection rates. They should all be fast tracked.
The DP system is the best system to accommodate asylum seekers providing the initial claims are processed within a six to nine month time scale. It should be much faster than that for the top four claimant counties. The issues are decision times, asylum shopping and economic migrants making bogus claims.
So wrong in so many ways
Ya while our own are dying on the streets daily young homeless family’s kids aswell living in tents if there lucky while Leo & co give themselves a pay rise. charity stops at home im afraid this country is F#ked and no im not racist snowflakes !!
@United Ireland: ignoring the spelling and sentence structure. No our own aren’t “dying on the streets daily”, no one is lucky to live in a tent, if charity stopped at home no one would help the people you’re describing, in some areas fair nuff we are f’ed and if you have to deny being something guess what you might be?
@GrahamMManning: Im denying that Im blind, does that mean I might be blind? See how your argument about racism falls short? I never understood that logic. Denying doesnt equate to being.
@Dom: it means you might be. Doesn’t mean you are. It’d be an odd thing to bring up if you weren’t though, wouldn’t it?
@GrahamMManning: I suppose that argument can be applied to anything. Anything said out of context can be odd. It would certainly be unnatural for me to bring it up but in this case, it fits the context. Just like United Ireland’s comment fits the context. Its also relevant and justified given how people can get so quickly bent out of shape. Anyway, just my input, it all comes down to maybes and woulds and coulds.
@Dom: yup fair nuff. Does seem to be mentioned more often than not by posters whose comments could be interpreted as racist and rarely by those whose comments couldn’t?
We really need to deport the fraudsters, every bogus asylum seeker is taking the place of a genuine one.
The few genuine asylum seekers shoulsd be allowed to
We really need to deport the fraudsters, every bogus asylum seeker is taking the place of a genuine one.
€462,046 does not average out at 18 million, your 6million short on your maths. €24,026,392 a year
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: till September sorry too tired
@Ali Ní Dhomhnaill: lol I’d be so embarrassed omg
How many times would that get Joyce from Zurich to Dublin and back.
@Keelan O’neill: hmmm…sure he wants to come back?
“Look after our own” is very thinly veiled racism. Look closely and you will see that most decent people don’t subscribe to such apathy.
@Freezepeach: Ur profile pic is racism im calling the guard’s
@United Ireland: need help dialing the number cos you sure do when typing?
@GrahamMManning: hamMmannning go hug a tree for urself or maybe wash Ur hair & get a job living on handouts all Ur live aswell I bet
@United Ireland: such cutting insults, how will my fragile ego not crumble? Bald as a cue ball and gainfully employee as a teacher. What do u do kid?
@GrahamMManning: employed.
@United Ireland: If you change the word more to no then that’s racism.
@GrahamMManning: yawn, what a predictable narrow minded comment
@GooseSkipGoose: care to articulate how, maybe even offer some substantive input yourself?
Scammers !
@ken gray: all of em yeah?
have your say