Tag Archives: Covid-19

THE chairman of the Retailers of Ennis group has slammed Clare County Council’s policy of keeping O’Connell Street and Abbey Street closed in peak trading hours, something he says is killing business in the town centre, and will not help stop the spread of Covid-19. The streets have been closed to vehicles to allow more room for pedestrians, which the Council claims will help limit the spread of Covid-19, but business owner John O’Connor says it is a nonsense. “The rationale the Council used is based on a fallacy, that if you walk a normal street landscape you have every chance of transmitting or contracting the virus. The logic behind that is a total fallacy. At the start there was an element of fear and total ignorance, “What the Council have been doing is continuing with that ignorant discourse and trying to convince people, and they have a lot of people convinced, that if you walk the streets of Ennis …

DURING a previous crisis Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary made a typically exaggerated claim that tumbleweed would be blowing through Shannon Airport, so quiet would it become, but even O’Leary couldn’t have foreseen what it would be like in the winter of 2020. With no scheduled flights at all in operation, the airport still remains open, but there is virtually nothing happening there. It still gets some cargo flights and some transit, but the terminal building is nearly vacant. Only a handful of people, nearly all of them employed on the premises, were there on Wednesday morning. Huge areas were entirely vacant, while screens showing arrivals and departures were bare, while the check in areas were closed. The restaurant on the ground floor was open for takeaways, but there was little demand there. At the newsagents across from it, the sole worker there had the shelves and coolers perfectly stocked, but he was a solitary figure on the premises until the …

THE “catastrophic” impact of Covid-19 on Mid-West health services came sharply into focus this week with confirmation the number of public inpatients waiting for treatment has soared by almost 40%. New figures published by the National Purchase Treatment Fund have revealed the number of public inpatients waiting for treatment jumped by almost 40% from 4,798 on January 30 to 6,676 on October 30. This includes 2,266 inpatients waiting for treatment at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) and 621 in Ennis Hospital. The numbers on the outpatient list also grew by 16% from 47,184 in January to 54,759 in October. There are 42,777 outpatients in UHL, 7,235 in Croom, 2,026 in Ennis, 1,296 in Nenagh and 1,425 in St John’s Hospital waiting for treatment. Deputy Michael McNamara described the increase as “alarming but not surprising” in view of the cancellation of elective surgery. “I raised the issue of health services with the HSE and with former Health Minister Simon Harris in the …

  OUTPATIENT and elective surgery will resume at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) and Ennis Hospital next Tuesday, the UL Hospitals’ Group announced on Friday. The group explained the cancellation of surgery was necessary for patient and staff safety while both hospitals have been managing a number of outbreaks of Covid-19. During this time, six wards in UHL were closed to admissions. In addition, some 221 staff across the group were off work and self-isolating due to Covid-19. Meanwhile, the Outbreak Control Teams established in both locations has continued to work closely with public health and occupational health colleagues, in accordance with HPSC guidance, to contain the virus and protect all the patients and staff in our hospitals. Contact tracing and testing of staff has been ongoing, and all appropriate infection control measures have been implemented to mitigate the risk. On Friday, the Group’s Hospital Crisis Management Team decided to extend the service curtailments at UHL and Ennis for just one …

IN the region of 221 healthcare staff across the UL Hospitals’ Group are self-isolating due to Covid-19 as all routine outpatient appointments and the majority of elective procedures remain cancelled in two public hospitals until Friday, November 20. The UL Hospitals’ Group has confirmed significant reductions in scheduled care at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) and Ennis Hospital have been extended for a further week for patient and staff safety as both hospitals continue to manage a number of outbreaks of Covid-19. Six wards in UHL were closed to admissions last Friday and a total of 188 staff are currently off work and self-isolating across the group, having either tested positive for Covid-19 or being designated as close contacts. Outbreak control teams established in both locations continue to work closely with public health and occupational health colleagues and all the relevant HPSC guidance is being followed as we work to contain the virus and to protect patients and staff. Contact tracing …

INDIVIDUAL booths could be installed in cattle marts with access to television screens for buyers to facilitate a resumption of live cattle sales in marts, according to a local farm leader. Difficulties with broadband caused huge anger amongst farmers throughout the country recently when on line cattle sales crashed leaving sellers without an outlet to sell their livestock. Clare Beef Plan chairman, Joe Woulfe believes the installation of individual booths with access to television screens should be considered as this would be one way to comply with social distancing in compliance with Covid-19 guidelines. Mr Woulfe stressed new measures were needed to safeguard a multi billion meat industry as the online system of selling and buying cattle was proving to be too problematic. Mr Woulfe said farmers were not looking for a special exemption as food production was always categorised as an essential service since the start of the lockdown. This is illustrated by the fact that meat factories have …

AN alternative to repeated lockdowns, in response to the pandemic, could lie in the promotion of ventilation and air filtration systems in homes and businesses, according to a West Clare member of Clare County Council. Addressing the November council meeting, Councillor Cillian Murphy asked the authority to undertake a campaign and to contact other councils “to build awareness at a national level of the impact better indoor air quality has in reducing the spread of Covid-19”. His motion was seconded by Councillor Patrick O’Gorman. Noting a written response from Senior Engineer Cyril Feeney saying that responsibility lay with the HSE, Councillor Murphy urged the authority to consider what it could do to promote the message. “To-date the health promotion message had focused on social distancing, hand washing and mask wearing, but there is now an increasing understanding of air-borne transmission and proper ventilation of buildings,” the Fianna Fáil member said. “Clare County Council has been instrumental in delivering HSE recommendations …

SHANNON based councillor Donna McGettigan is recovering from Covid-19, and she feels that the stigma around the virus is a barrier to effectively dealing with it. Speaking on Monday, Councillor McGettigan said that herself and her husband have been confined to home for the last two weeks, and she was diagnosed on the weekend before last. By this week, she was well on the way to becoming healthy once more. “I’m back now, I feel a good bit better, but I get very tired very quickly, the energy levels aren’t where they were. I still get a mad headache every day, a mad blast of a headache, but I know it’s coming. Honestly, I didn’t get it as bad as some people had, I just had three bad days. I was very, very lucky.” Her husband is in a high risk category, but has also managed to recover from the virus. Councillor McGettigan had a few days when she was …