AN Outbreak Control Team has been established at University Hospital Limerick after one patient and one member of staff on Ward 3B tested positive for Covid-19 this Tuesday ( August 19).
Contact tracing and testing is currently underway and all appropriate infection prevention and control measures are being followed in line with the national HPSC guidance.
A number of staff from the ward at the centre of what we believe to be a localised outbreak have been identified as contacts. They have been asked to stay off work and to self-isolate in line with national guidance. Initial testing of all patient contacts is complete and has not identified further cases. Initial testing of all staff contacts is expected to be complete tomorrow.
All patients on the ward in question have been informed of the outbreak.
Noreen Spillane, Chief Operations Officer, UL Hospitals Group, said: “Hospitals have been preparing for these situations for many months and we have now established an Outbreak Control Team to put into operation our measures to protect the safety of patients and staff and to protect public health more generally. This is the first outbreak of Covid-19 to have occurred in UHL since the start of the pandemic. This is unfortunate but we have every reason to believe that this is a limited outbreak that is contained in the ward in question.”
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.