Galway COVID-19, local news and discussion

Discodog

shenanagans wrote: »

It's the fuel and animal feed that lets many get around the rules.

They aren't "getting around the rules". They are legally allowed to open. I know a Farm shop owner who has been religiously following the published messages. He has stopped selling any Hardware & only sells feed. But he's now discovered that he has always been allowed to sell Hardwear, Garden Tool etc. He's lost business because of poor advice.

Meanwhile others have stayed open & sold everything without any problem.

Zzippy

Discodog wrote: »

They aren't "getting around the rules". They are legally allowed to open. I know a Farm shop owner who has been religiously following the published messages. He has stopped selling any Hardware & only sells feed. But he's now discovered that he has always been allowed to sell Hardwear, Garden Tool etc. He's lost business because of poor advice.

Meanwhile others have stayed open & sold everything without any problem.

They haven't stayed open technically, they have operated a delivery service so no customers are visiting the shop/garden centre. Some have opened fully now but are still asking customers to use the delivery option and only visit as a last resort.

_Whimsical_

It might have been posted before but just in case...

The library has brilliant online resources available right now and you can register online if you're not already a library user. The most useful I've found is the Pressreader app that gives you full access to newspapers and magazines from all over the world, nearly all of the big names are there.

It would be so useful for older people who are self isolating alone . If you have parents or relations in that situation you can set up all the accounts for them on your own phone and then just help them download the app and you can provide them with the logins you've set.

There are lots of other great free services too. It's really worth a look.

https://www.librariesireland.ie/news/online-services-during-coronavirus

Discodog

Zzippy wrote: »

They haven't stayed open technically, they have operated a delivery service so no customers are visiting the shop/garden centre. Some have opened fully now but are still asking customers to use the delivery option and only visit as a last resort.

I know at least three Garden Centres/Shops that are fully open.

New Home

_Whimsical_ wrote: »

It might have been posted before but just in case...

The library has brilliant online resources available right now and you can register online if you're not already a library user. The most useful I've found is the Pressreader app that gives you full access to newspapers and magazines from all over the world, nearly all of the big names are there.

It would be so useful for older people who are self isolating alone . If you have parents or relations in that situation you can set up all the accounts for them on your own phone and then just help them download the app and you can provide them with the logins you've set.

There are lots of other great free services too. It's really worth a look.

https://www.librariesireland.ie/news/online-services-during-coronavirus

Don't even need to register on the pressdisplay website. Go to: http://library.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx

Log in using you library card no. (or 9000000 if you're stuck), select Ireland, and you're good to go.

shenanagans

Discodog wrote: »

I know at least three Garden Centres/Shops that are fully open.

Where?

Pen Rua

https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0420/1132688-junior-cert-galway/

A Co Galway secondary school has decided not to participate in this year's Junior Certificate exams.

Coláiste Bhaile Chláir in Claregalway said it has taken the decision in the best interest of its students, and with a view to reducing anxiety.

The school’s 200 third-year students will forego their Junior Cert in favour of school-based end-of-year tests and assignments. These will be held remotely over the next six weeks with results issued to students in June.

Discodog

shenanagans wrote: »

Where?

I won't rat :pac:

JoeA3

I know of a couple of hardware places open too. Doing a roaring trade on paint.

Zzippy

shenanagans wrote: »

Where?

I know Dangan is open, and McGaughs, but McGaughs have asked people only to attend in person for urgent purchases. They have a great delivery service up and running.

shenanagans

Discodog wrote: »

I won't rat :pac:

If they sell fuel or animal feed they can open..... Do these places sell these items??

Discodog

shenanagans wrote: »

If they sell fuel or animal feed they can open..... Do these places sell these items??

One does the rest don't & they can all open. The government have asked them not to open rather than ordering them not to as they can't force them to close. It's bizarre that the government made a list & then changed their minds or forgot what was on it.

Discodog

Zzippy wrote: »

I know Dangan is open, and McGaughs, but McGaughs have asked people only to attend in person for urgent purchases. They have a great delivery service up and running.

Dangan is tucked away with lots of parking. Queues at McGaughs would cause chaos. Online is ok for composts, tools etc but no so good for plants.

tmh106

New Home wrote: »

Don't even need to register on the pressdisplay website. Go to: http://library.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx

Log in using you library card no. (or 9000000 if you're stuck), select Ireland, and you're good to go.

When I do this and I open the Irish Times I get to view the fist page but to access
any pages after the first I have to pay for an Irish times subscription i.e. no different than if I went directly to the Irish times site itself. What am I missing?

New Home

tmh106 wrote: »

When I do this and I open the Irish Times I get to view the fist page but to access
any pages after the first I have to pay for an Irish times subscription i.e. no different than if I went directly to the Irish times site itself. What am I missing?

There's no Irish Times on that list, not that I can see. Are you sure you're going to the same website?

Arghus

Shop Street pretty full with people today, can be seen on the claddagh jewellers webcam.

Hopefully our complacency won't cost us.

shenanagans

Discodog wrote: »

One does the rest don't & they can all open. The government have asked them not to open rather than ordering them not to as they can't force them to close. It's bizarre that the government made a list & then changed their minds or forgot what was on it.

Most are doing delivery. There's no need for people to go to these shops. Gardai should target them.....2km rule.

tmh106

New Home wrote: »

There's no Irish Times on that list, not that I can see. Are you sure you're going to the same website?

Mea culpa I think. I went to press reader general site rather than logging in through my Libraries Ireland account.

biko

From their Facebook

Galway City Council and Galway City Community Network have developed an interactive map featuring local services that are providing supports in relation to the collection of shopping, medications and fuel, social isolation supports from local and national organisations and information on meals and their delivery to people and families made vulnerable by the COVID-19 crisis.

To view the map, click on the following link: https://www.galwaycity.ie/GalwayCityCommunityDashboard

Mobile- friendly version: https://www.galwaycity.ie/GalwayCityCommunityMap

goalscoringhero

Discodog wrote: »

They aren't going to test her. They just told her to self isolate.

There are criteria for testing, amongst them:

1. Display of symptoms AND close personal exposure to known or suspected case
2. Display of symptoms AND co-habiting with vulnerable person

Plus a number of other variations.

Here is my experience:
Developed typical symptoms on Thursday morning, started self-isolation and rang doctor to ask for advice.
When GP rang back on Thursday afternoon, they went with me through symptoms and personal circumstance.
The fact that one member of my household was deemed vulnerable meant an appointment for a test was organised and self-isolation prescribed.

The test was performed on Friday morning at Galway airport. That's less than a day turnaround which is great.
Test itself took 20 minutes including in-and-out of airport, which is excellent.

Result came back this morning as negative thankfully. That's also an excellent turnaround.

I continue to self-isolate on advice from GP since some symptoms are still displaying, and I guess to guard against the tiny possibility of a false negative.

However, based on negative test I was able to get a prescription against chest infection, which wouldn't have been given if test result was still outstanding.


Now... my read on who gets tested and who doesn't is the following:
If no symptoms present, a test would come back as negative, thereby not giving any insights. In addition it would be a waste of a test-kit, and the lab time to evaluate it.

extra gravy

Arghus wrote: »

Shop Street pretty full with people today, can be seen on the claddagh jewellers webcam.

Hopefully our complacency won't cost us.

There was a few more people around today than in previous days but nowhere near being full.

I didn't give an update on Friday as planned as I thought it was better to wait until the promised clearing of the back log occurred. Thats happened now and we are more-or-less in a real-time reporting state from this point on which is fantastic.

There have been a further 77 deaths and 401 new cases reported for a total of 15,652 cases.



The r value is now starting to drop lower and faster than previous, with a rate of 1.026 for today, and a 7 day rate of 1.057. The 5 day rate of 1.045 is better again too. This shows that we are almost at the peak and have effectively avoided a large scale surge in cases.



The next 2 charts show the current situation and a projection out 14 days. The next 4-5 days will tell a lot in terms of dropping below an r value of 1 and will have a big effect on both of these charts in terms of overall cases and daily reported cases.





Lastly, the county by county breakdown. I'm honestly baffled by Cavan. It has the 2nd highest rate per 10k population after Dublin. I'm sure there is some valid explanation for it but it is strange to see it so high.



Province County Total Cases Rate per 10k 2016 Population Population Density
Leinster Dublin 7,666 57 1,347,359 1,459.20
Ulster Cavan 401 53 76,176 39.3
Leinster Westmeath 369 42 88,770 48.2
Leinster Kildare 817 37 222,504 131
Leinster Louth 437 34 128,884 155.4
Leinster Wicklow 444 31 142,425 70.2
Ulster Monaghan 187 30 61,386 47.3
Leinster Meath 513 26 195,044 83.2
Connacht Mayo 332 25 130,507 23.3
Leinster Offaly 190 24 77,961 38.9
Ulster Donegal 383 24 159,192 32.6
Leinster Longford 91 22 40,873 37.4
Leinster Kilkenny 206 21 99,232 47.8
Munster Limerick 401 21 194,899 70.8
Leinster Laois 170 20 84,697 49.3
Munster Cork 1047 19 542,868 72.3
Munster Tipperary 300 19 159,553 37.2
Munster Kerry 268 18 147,707 30.7
Connacht Leitrim 49 15 32,044 20.1
Connacht Roscommon 91 14 64,544 25.3
Leinster Carlow 78 14 56,932 63.4
Munster Clare 160 13 118,817 34.4
Connacht Sligo 78 12 65,535 35.5
Connacht Galway 294 11 258,058 42
Munster Waterford 113 10 116,176 62.7
Leinster Wexford 100 7 149,722 63.2


In summary, it looks like we are finally turning a corner on this but its still not clear at what speed we will get around that corner. My hope is that we would start to see the r value drop below 1 by next weekend but as I mentioned earlier, the next few days will tell a lot given that it'll be the first time we'll be see the case number in almost real-time.

Whatever happens, don't expect the lockdown to be lifted any time soon. To put things into context;

• Ireland identified its first case on Feb 29
• Passed 10 cases on 05-Mar, 5 days later.
• Took another 3 days for the next 10.
• Schools, colleges and childcare facilities instructed to close on 12-Mar
• 27 new cases reported on that day
• Passed 100 cases on 14-Mar, 9 days later.
• Took 2 days for the next 100.
• Passed 1,000 cases on 23-Mar, 9 days later.
• Took another 4 days to break the next 1,000 mark
• Stay at home instruction to the population on 27-Mar
• 302 cases reported that day
• Passed 10,000 cases on 13-Apr, 21 days later.
• Likely to break the next 10,000 before Sunday

While we may start to see the daily case numbers dropping, it'll be a while before they get low enough to be at a safe level.

Finally, the modelling data presented on 16-Apr suggests that there are modifications required to the released data but updated data has not been released outside of this presentation. If it gets released, I'll update everything accordingly.

Arghus

extra gravy wrote: »

There was a few more people around today than in previous days but nowhere near being full.

Maybe not jam packed, but more people then what would be considered advisable. And I spotted a few groups too of people. Sure, maybe they all live together...

There is greater complacency creeping in amongst people.

Whereisgalway

Arghus wrote: »

There is greater complacency creeping in amongst people.

It’s very frustrating to see, especially when most people are trying their best. Like always a few ruin it

serfboard

Arghus wrote: »

There is greater complacency creeping in amongst people.

Agree with this, and I think that it was always going to happen. I speculate that there may be three factors going on here:

• Time - the longer the lockdown goes on the harder it is to keep it together
• Peak perception - today's record number of deaths aside, there may be a perception that we may have passed the peak already (certainly in terms of new cases)
• The "Keelings" factor - paraphrased by "Here I am doing my best, and not going outside 2km, and these feckers fly a jam-packed plane full of people thousands of kilometers. Feck them, I'm going out".

Pen Rua

Took my evening walk and I would estimate maybe +1/3 more people than the last two weeks at roughly the same time.

Arghus

The extraordinarily good weather makes a difference too. We've had, like what, two days of rain in the last fortnight? It's been incredibly dry since the lockdown was announced. Up until that point the weather was constantly shyte! If we didn't have to stay inside it'd be pissing, guaranteed.

JoeA3

I don't get the surprise that more people are out and about. In my view it is no surprise and there's several reasons for it...

There is a perception out there, rightly or wrongly, that we are over the worst of this. As per usual there's confused mixed messages coming from those in authority (Simon Harris can't keep his gob shut), but the perception is that we've avoided the worst. Take the nursing home situation out of it and the numbers look a lot different. Tony Holohan was on the LLS on Friday night, he was quite optimistic that we have it under control and restrictions would begin to ease from May 5th. That was the strong message in the media outlets all weekend and then Simon sends out his tweet lastnight that he's worried we are all becoming complacent! No sh1t Sherlock.

In the community, outside of nursing homes and health care workers, I don't get the impression that the general population feel overly threatened by it. That's the perception I have among my family/friends/colleagues but obviously others feel very differently, judging by the posts here.

We have a "lockdown" in name only. 2km limit? Give me a break. The rules are there as a guideline only because, in general, it is not enforced. How could it be, realistically? The chances of running into trouble with a Garda are virtually nil.

A lot of people have been cooped up for 5-6 weeks now with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Kids are getting fed up, parents even more so. People are going mad with a lack of structure and something to do, and thats before you even consider those who've lost their jobs, their businesses etc. Then people who maybe have been strictly following the rules probably get very pee'd off when they hear about the Keeling's fruit fiasco the other day... and the confused messages from the Government.

We've just come out of one of the worst most miserable winters in years, seemingly endless rain from last August through to March. Even by normal Galway standards it was bad. We've had a couple of weeks now of decent weather, its only natural that people want to get out in it.

Whereisgalway

JoeA3 wrote: »

I don't get the surprise that more people are out and about. In my view it is no surprise and there's several reasons for it...

There is a perception out there, rightly or wrongly, that we are over the worst of this. As per usual there's confused mixed messages coming from those in authority (Simon Harris can't keep his gob shut), but the perception is that we've avoided the worst. Take the nursing home situation out of it and the numbers look a lot different. Tony Holohan was on the LLS on Friday night, he was quite optimistic that we have it under control and restrictions would begin to ease from May 5th. That was the strong message in the media outlets all weekend and then Simon sends out his tweet lastnight that he's worried we are all becoming complacent! No sh1t Sherlock.

In the community, outside of nursing homes and health care workers, I don't get the impression that the general population feel overly threatened by it. That's the perception I have among my family/friends/colleagues but obviously others feel very differently, judging by the posts here.

We have a "lockdown" in name only. 2km limit? Give me a break. The rules are there as a guideline only because, in general, it is not enforced. How could it be, realistically? The chances of running into trouble with a Garda are virtually nil.

A lot of people have been cooped up for 5-6 weeks now with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Kids are getting fed up, parents even more so. People are going mad with a lack of structure and something to do, and thats before you even consider those who've lost their jobs, their businesses etc. Then people who maybe have been strictly following the rules probably get very pee'd off when they hear about the Keeling's fruit fiasco the other day... and the confused messages from the Government.

We've just come out of one of the worst most miserable winters in years, seemingly endless rain from last August through to March. Even by normal Galway standards it was bad. We've had a couple of weeks now of decent weather, its only natural that people want to get out in it.

Read what you wrote twice, still don’t see what point your trying to make

ben.schlomo

Whereisgalway wrote: »

Read what you wrote twice, still don’t see what point your trying to make

Says more about you than the post, I mean the poster even summed it up in one sentence at the very end!!!