Tag Archives: Covid-19

A MAN from the Mid-West who failed to restrict his movements on his return from a holidays abroad infected 56 other people with Covid-19, the Mid-West HSE has revealed. This man, who inadvertently passed on this contagious virus to ten private households and a sports team, had mild symptoms including a runny nose and a mild sore throat. After discovering his temperature was normal, he socialised with a group of friends and later tested positive for Covid-19. However, by this stage, he had already infected a number of his friends. Three of these friends went on to infect their families. Another friend who he infected felt unwell and contacted her GP to arrange a Covid-19 test. She had the test in the morning but by afternoon she felt a bit better and decided to go to a friend’s party. After the party, she got her test result and it was positive. By attending the party while waiting for her test …

MARTS will continue to operate under Level 5 restrictions, but all sales will move online and access to the premises in Ennis, Kilfenora, Scariff and Kilrush will be strictly controlled. Sellers are asked to book a time to ‘drop and go’. Similarly, buyers must pre-book a viewing time when they will be able to look at animals in the mart yard. They must then leave the mart and make their bids remotely either online or through an app. “It is going to be tough, there’s no doubt about that, but we’re determined to keep the service to farmers going,” said General Manager of Clare Marts, Martin McNamara. “We’ve already being conducting a lot of business online and Level 5 means our sales will now move entirely online. Sellers need to book with us in advance so that they can drop their animals off at the mart and go. Buyers, who might be working on behalf of a number of customers, …

WITH the country now under further Covid-19 restrictions, a University of Limerick study has been examining the effect that lockdown can have on the mental health of children and adolescents. Covid-19 has caused major disruptions to the lives of families, through social distancing measures, school closures and lockdown, all of which threaten the wellbeing of young people and their families. Researchers at UL have been exploring the specific impact of one month in lockdown on the mental health of children and adolescents. The study, entitled Co-SPACE (Covid-19 Supporting Parents, Adolescents and Children during Epidemics) is led by Dr Jennifer McMahon and a team of researchers at UL. It is linked to a study of the same name in the UK led by Professor Cathy Creswell and Dr Polly Waite of the Department of Psychiatry and Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford. “Increasingly researchers and practitioners are concerned about the effects of strict restrictions, such as those experienced from March to June, …

MAYOR of Clare Mary Howard has said there is an “appalling situation” in the country’s maternity hospitals, with women being left without support due to Covid-19 restrictions. The Ennis woman said that 150 are born each day, and with the mothers not allowed have fathers present except for the latter stages and for a short time after the birth, she said it is often “a really, really lonesome experience”, which can be especially difficult if the birth has been difficult. She said that the staff in the hospitals are “up to their tonsils” and can’t pick up the slack left by the absence of fathers. Councillor Howard said that she had spoken to a number of new mothers, and was told that glasses of water are filled for them at 7.30am and only refilled at 7.30m even though the woman may be unable to get anything for herself in between. Another woman had been in soiled clothes for two days, …

SANITIZER dispensers have torn down at Aistear Park, in a spate of weekend vandalism which has been described by the head of Mountshannon Community Council as “just horrendous”. Last Monday morning, members of the Community Employment (CE) scheme arrived at the park to find a significant amount of rubbish, with broken glass and fragments of cans strewn in the grass close to a children’s play area. A popular community book-swapping facility, which is located in the park, was also vandalised, forcing the community council to consider removing it altogether. “The CE scheme members have worked so hard during, the earlier lockdown, to keep the park up to a standard where everyone in the locality can get in and enjoy it,” said Joanne Dunphy-Allen. “We were delighted to get support from Clare County Council who gave us the sanitizer dispensers and signage, so that we could really help people to feel safe in the park and to remind them of their …

A VEHEMENT critic of the State’s approach to dealing with Covid-19 for some months, Clare TD Michael McNamara has again slammed the latest policy move, as Ireland switches to so-called level five restrictions. “I don’t know really what these levels mean, how we arrived in this paradigm of levels that determine what constraints we have on our lives, our ability to earn a livelihood and our basic right to liberty. I don’t know how we ended up here and I don’t know what purpose it serves,” he said this week. The Scariff man said that Ireland has had the toughest restrictions in Europe for months now, and it has not succeeded in suppressing the virus. He questioned how justifiable imposing significant restrictions is. “How much do you detain somebody, an ordinary healthy person, who doesn’t suffer from any mental illness, for how long is it legitimate to detain them for their own protection?” Mr McNamara said that while very severe …

DEPUTY Cathal Crowe is appealing for a collective effort from Clare people to reduce the very high incidence of Covid-19 in the county and avoid spending Christmas in lockdown. As Clare people face six-weeks of Level Five restrictions from last Thursday, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases exceeded 1,000 for the first time in the county when 1,030 were notified on October 17. Thirty-three more cases were confirmed a day later bringing the county total to 1,063 on October 18. Deputy Crowe said he feels particularly bad for businesses facing closure again and remains fully available to help and advise them in terms of supports. “The people of Clare have already made huge efforts to flatten the curve back in the spring months and yet here we are facing into the same situation once again. “I know how disheartening this will be, how detrimental it will be to people’s mental health, but I hope that people in their individual actions …

THE number of critical care beds in University Hospital Limerick to treat seriously ill non-Covid-19 and Covid-19 patients has only increased by four, a hospital boss has confirmed. UL Hospitals’ Group chief executive Colette Cowan has revealed there are currently 22 critical care beds in UHL – 12 intensive care and 10 high dependency beds. This represents an increase of four since the start of the year. During the peak of the first wave, the group initiated their critical care surge plan involving training and redeployment of staff, the temporary conversion of other beds in the Critical Care Block into ICU/HDU beds and the procurement of equipment. “The group are currently monitoring matters closely in the event we may need to open critical care surge capacity in the coming weeks. A plan is in place should we need to increase capacity,” she stated. In a recent overview provided for public representatives, Professor Cowan confirmed it is planned to hand back …