Tag Archives: Covid-19

THE majority of Covid-19 restrictions are being lifted from tomorrow morning, the Taoiseach has announced this evening. Pubs and restaurants are being permitted to return to normal opening hours from tomorrow, with the 8pm closing time being axed. Social distancing requirements are also being dropped as is the requirement for vaccine certificates, although mask wearing will remain in place for the coming weeks at least. Limits on numbers attending both indoor and outdoor events are also being scrapped. Earlier this week 5,000 tickets for this Sunday’s Clare and Limerick senior hurling tie were sold, but the door is now open for more to be made available. “It is time to be ourselves again,” said the Taoiseach this evening, as people received the most positive news on Covid-19 since the pandemic began. Pubs around the county are set for their busiest weekend for some time, while it seems that finally normality will resume to most aspects of life.

THE Clare Cancer Support Centre are urging people to mark a special moment in time by shining a ray of light through the cloud left by the Covid-19 pandemic. At 22.22pm on February 22, Clare Sláinte An Chláir ask everyone to shine a light for the past, present and future. This day will mark an extraordinary moment in time. For one minute at 22.22pm on Tuesday, February 22, the date will contain nine twos. This configuration will not occur again until 2222 – two hundred years from now when the date contains 10 twos. Clare Cancer Support would like people to join them in marking this special moment. Locally and globally people have come through two of the most challenging years in living memory. But the centre wants people to step forward with hope. “We will remember those who have died directly or indirectly due to the pandemic. “We will honor those who have stayed on the front lines this …

IT certainly hasn’t been the happiest of New Years at the Shannon Springs Hotel, with the prevalence of Covid-19 forcing closures and reductions in service since Christmas Speaking to The Clare Champion, co-owner Dermot Kelly said that the prevalence of the Omicron variant meant there were few options other than to scale back. “We did everything in our power to keep going but at the end of the day the safety of our team and our customers was most important. This particular variant seems to be really highly transmissible. Before Christmas Eve we had kind of said we wouldn’t open on the 26th and the 27th because they’d be too big, really and truly. “As it transpired we didn’t get to reopen until January 3 for accommodation and we’re not open to the public this coming week. We’re going to start doing take away food from this Thursday evening, we’ll have a certain amount of our team back who’ll be …

WITH the number of Covid-19 cases soaring, many businesses across Clare have either closed or reduced their operations as 2022 begins. Post-Christmas statistics for the prevalence of Covid-19 in Clare are not available as yet, but record figures have been seen nationally this week. Anecdotal evidence does suggest a huge amount of infections in this county. While the vast majority of people are vaccinated and many of those infected have only had mild symptoms, the requirement for isolation means many people are not in a position to attend their places of work. Mayor of Clare PJ Ryan runs an oil business and on Wednesday he said two of his staff were absent due to Covid.  He warned that the impact on business is likely to be very serious throughout the month of January. “Covid is definitely very prevalent in the area and it’s seriously going to affect businesses over the next number of weeks. If the numbers keep going up …

CLARE schools resume today at a time when Covid-19 transmission is at its highest point since the pandemic began. With a huge amount of people either having tested positive or having been close contacts of positive cases, there will inevitably be many teachers and pupils absent in the coming days. On Wednesday, Peter Walsh, principal of St Conaire’s in Shannon was preparing for the resumption, aware that a large cohort of teachers won’t be available for the first day back. “At the moment I’m looking at six and possibly seven (who won’t be there). That’s just over a quarter of my teaching staff.” He said that he had spoken to colleagues on Tuesday and Wednesday who were also expecting similar levels of teacher absence. Mr Walsh said that it is very difficult to prepare when Covid-19 is so prevalent. “It’s very, very challenging. It’s probably even more challenging than it was back in September, now that Covid-19 is everywhere with …

    The majority of scheduled public surgery and outpatient appointments in the Mid-West will be deferred next Tuesday due to an increase in staff absences . The UL Hospitals’ Group has confirmed Covid-19 related staff absences are resulting in significant disruption to services. This has resulted in the deferral of most of scheduled surgery and outpatient appointments across all hospital sites from Tuesday, January 4 until Friday, January 7. This includes University Hospital Limerick, Ennis Hospital, Nenagh Hospital, St John’s Hospital, and Croom Orthopaedic Hospital. Services at University Maternity Hospital Limerick are unaffected. All impacted patients are being contacted directly by the hospital.   As the group experience a significant surge in Covid-19 activity across society, it anticipates that an increase in staff absences will have a significant impact on services over the coming weeks. There are currently 392 staff off work and self-isolating having either tested positive for Covid-19, been designated as a close contact or have been …

FEARS have been expressed the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 may lead to staffing shortages in hospitals early in the New Year. Dr Catherine Motherway, a leading intensive care consultant at Limerick University Hospital, has voiced concern in a recent interview that the highly transmissible new variant will have a very significant impact on staff. The National Ambulance Service (NAS) meanwhile has put private operators on standby in expectation that high numbers of staff will be lost to Covid, coupled with an expected surge in call-outs in January. Case numbers soared nationally to 11,182 on Christmas Eve, with Omicron as the driving factor. The variant now accounts for 83pc of all cases. There were 38 confirmed Covid-19 patients in ICU at UHL on Tuesday, which was the third highest in the country after 51 were recorded in Beaumont Hospital and 38 in Tallaght. The HSE’s Performance Management and Improvement Unit has confirmed 12 of these confirmed cases are being treated …

A nursing union has called for the curtailment of elective treatments in University Hospital Limerick to reduce the expected spike in overcrowding in the Emergency Department over the coming weeks.   The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has called on the HSE to publish and implement a Plan B for dealing with the capacity crisis that is escalating within the public acute hospital system. The INMO has requested all activity except urgent emergency care to be curtailed in the public hospital system. INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha expressed concern about the high numbers of patients presenting to Emergency Departments across the country. “From experience we know that if there are 287 patients for whom there is no bed in a hospital on December 30th, we know that figure will be tripled in early January. It is time now to scale back all activity within our public hospital system to emergency activity only. “Our public health service is too small …