Coronavirus

madalig12

madalig12 wrote: »

School near Ballybofey...6th class teacher got covid. What u think they did? Isolate the class? Nope. The front row...the next week 2 in the 2nd row were out with covid and another since then from further back. Good work HSE

Aye. I read an email from a secondary school in that area last night, confirming a case of covid 19.

The HSE decided that there were no close contacts, and that no further action was necessary.

Exactly how it's possible for a child to sit in multiple classrooms all week, yet have no close contacts, is utterly beyond me.

I know children over 12 are obliged to wear masks - but I could make a fairly educated guess, and say half those kids are wearing those fashion accessory masks, as opposed to medical grade masks.

So, my question is, if health workers wearing full PPE can still get infected, then how is it possible that children in a classroom are not deemed to be close contacts?

Honestly, the mind boggles.

Nobotty

There is no doubt in my mind that the HSE have their heads in the sand on transmission in kids
One of the neighbours is in a pod and one of the kids in the pod has tested positive
We'll see what they do with the rest
They're all sent home at the moment

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

32 cases today

It's still quite up and down but we never went above 60ish, and even that was only once, I think.

We're still 4th highest on the 14 day incidence list (365 per 100k) Hopefully we'll see that drop off soon.

muffler

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

It's still quite up and down but we never went above 60ish, and even that was only once, I think.

60 was the highest we hit.

The following is the bi-monthly figures from the second half of July up to yesterday, the first half of October.

16th - 31st July - 2, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1. (total = 5)

1st - 15th August - 0, 2, 0, 0, 5, 1, 4, 1, 5, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 2. (total = 31)

16th - 31st August - 1, 1, 0, 3, 0, 2, 1, 0, 4, 1, 0, 6, 0, 14, 0, 0. (total = 33)

1st - 15th September - 3, 0, 0, 0, 5, 2, 0, 3, 4, 1, 5, 5, 13, 12, 2. (total = 55)

16th - 30th September - 20, 16, 13, 19, 19, 21, 18, 30, 41, 22, 37, 23, 22. 23, 31. (total = 355)

1st - 15th October – 28, 36, 58, 31, 34, 51, 60, 53, 33, 34, 56, 38, 23, 29, 50. (Total = 614)

babybuilder

How anyone can rely on hope alone to get us out of this mess is beyond me. The only strategy that will work is a lockdown similar to that in March. Since August/ September our authorities have really dropped the ball and the population has behaved likewise. I witness deplorable social interaction daily as far as social distancing is concerned. Internationally a lockdown has been shown to be the only workable solution. It will mean huge economic challenges but the virus doesn't care how we feel. It will spread between all humans in close contact. I'm so fed up myself with this but I'm resigned to the current situation for this winter. God forbid it continues beyond next year.

CastorTroy

Halloween is a Saturday tis year so can be guaranteed there'll be gatherings at bonfires and parties.

henke

Unfortunately I think it was only a matter of time before the country is moved to level 5 but I don't know what the end game is here. Post lockdown cases dropped off in the summer but the way it has taken off during September and October I am not sure it will get to or stay at low numbers if we come out of lockdown again during winter and it's surely not realistic to keep level 5 up until next spring.

NIMAN

Derry city now reported as having the worst rate in the world.

997 per 100000 in the waterside.
1155 per 100000 in the city side.

Absolutely shocking.

malinheader

NIMAN wrote: »

Derry city now reported as having the worst rate in the world.

997 per 100000 in the waterside.
1155 per 100000 in the city side.

Absolutely shocking.

Shocking but not really surprising. They are only stopping serving food and drink inside of premises this evening, even with the numbers going through the roof for the last few weeks..
Its nearly out of control if it is not already so all this talk about levels is a waste of time. Only a lockdown is going to have any effect imo.
Is there really much difference between level 3 and 4. I don't really think so.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

henke wrote: »

Unfortunately I think it was only a matter of time before the country is moved to level 5 but I don't know what the end game is here. Post lockdown cases dropped off in the summer but the way it has taken off during September and October I am not sure it will get to or stay at low numbers if we come out of lockdown again during winter and it's surely not realistic to keep level 5 up until next spring.

Ideally people would start taking responsibility for their own actions and play their part in reducing the spread. Until a vaccine is found and widely available the virus is here to stay. There's always going to be new cases of it. People were very quick to forget even the most basic of things from March, like social distancing and washing hands, as soon as things reopened. It's tough on everyone but the reality is we can't just go back to normal and pretend it's not there. Unfortunately, given the highly contagious nature of it, it doesn't take that many people doing things they shouldn't be doing to undo the majority of people who are at least trying to follow guidelines.

If we go to Level 5, and if we actually abide by it, and the numbers come down again, we'll get a second chance to do things better than we did it this time. Some people are just selfish and won't change their behaviour no matter what, but hopefully there'll be less fence sitting from others when people are ignoring rules and behaving like everything's normal.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

malinheader wrote: »

Is there really much difference between level 3 and 4. I don't really think so.

Going by the actual printed rules for the levels here in the Republic, the only real difference between Level 3 and 4 are the shops being closed, and no household visitors allowed at all.

- Numbers allowed at weddings are cut way down.
- Gyms/pools are closed.
- The dining/pub restrictions for level 4 were already imposed at level 3
- Hotels can only have existing guests, so I'd assume no check ins after Level 4 begins
- Universities are supposed to be online only
- public transport capacity is cut to 25%
- Everyone's supposed to work from home, or close business, other than essential services

PS. Looking at this leaflet of all the levels I can see why that poster the other night was confused about whether their husband could travel to Sligo for work. It says on level 3 "Stay in your county except for work, education & essential purposes", then on level 4 it says "stay in your county except for essential work, education & essential purposes". I would assume that was worded with the idea that all of the country would be on the same level, but it's certainly confusing.

muffler

Apparently there are 5 cases of Covid in a secondary school in the Finn Valley. There was also a case in a local national school and those kids in the bubble have been sent home.

babybuilder

muffler wrote: »

Apparently there are 5 cases of Covid in a secondary school in the Finn Valley. There was also a case in a local national school and those kids in the bubble have been sent home.

I've heard a rumour emanating from a certain Donegal second level school of a senior management vetting close contacts of a suspected covid teacher. Shocking if true.

madalig12

muffler wrote: »

Apparently there are 5 cases of Covid in a secondary school in the Finn Valley. There was also a case in a local national school and those kids in the bubble have been sent home.

This was what i spoke of earlier. 2 more kids who werent in the front row infected. The teacher is GAA man. He had it 1st by the looks

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

madalig12 wrote: »

This was what i spoke of earlier. 2 more kids who werent in the front row infected. The teacher is GAA man. He had it 1st by the looks

Seems like we should be more concerned about shutting down the GAA than about schools.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

43 cases today

whatswhat

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Ideally people would start taking responsibility for their own actions and play their part in reducing the spread. Until a vaccine is found and widely available the virus is here to stay. There's always going to be new cases of it. People were very quick to forget even the most basic of things from March, like social distancing and washing hands, as soon as things reopened. It's tough on everyone but the reality is we can't just go back to normal and pretend it's not there. Unfortunately, given the highly contagious nature of it, it doesn't take that many people doing things they shouldn't be doing to undo the majority of people who are at least trying to follow guidelines.

If we go to Level 5, and if we actually abide by it, and the numbers come down again, we'll get a second chance to do things better than we did it this time. Some people are just selfish and won't change their behaviour no matter what, but hopefully there'll be less fence sitting from others when people are ignoring rules and behaving like everything's normal.

I work in Retail and have witnessed over the months the deterioration in customer attitude towards keeping safe and protecting each other from the virus.
When my store re-opened after lock down in June, the vast majority of customers wore face masks, sanitised on entry, shopped alone or in a couple at most and kept a safe distance. They came in store, got what they wanted and left sharpish.
This continued I'd say until the end of July.

Since then, we have seen face masks worn under the chin, on top of the head but
more alarmingly, none at all.
Unless invited, 50% of people walk straight past the sanitizer unit and now the average customer group is 3-5 people, who then seem to bump into another large group and seem to want to chat all day??
No doubt about it, standards and attitude to this pandemic have lapsed shockingly.
It's not surprising at all that we are where we are.

NIMAN

Surprised at the mask situation you mention, but I don't work in retail and can only comment on what I see when I am in a supermarket or a shop.

In July very few wore masks. I'd say nearly everyone does now since we were told to wear them. Afaik, we weren't told they were mandatory when society opener up again.

You're probably right about the rest though. I do see a lot of folk standing around in groups chatting in the supermarket.

Donegal Storm

Yeah not a chance there were more people wearing masks in June/July than there are now, from my experience in Letterkenny I'd say maybe 1 in 10 wore masks in the summer whereas it's >95% compliance now.

Rest of the points are definitely valid though

ednwireland

14 cases today

https://www.donegallive.ie/news/coronavirus/582068/covid-19-three-more-deaths-and-1-283-cases-with-14-in-donegal.html

Nobotty

Big improvement there
Looks like lock down untill at least mid December now though

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Nobotty wrote: »

Big improvement there
Looks like lock down untill at least mid December now though

6 weeks they're saying, so if they'd hurry up and get on with it that would be start of December.

I was in Letterkenny this afternoon and was surprised to see some of the places that were open. Harry Cory is hardly essential. Dunnes clothing section seems to be open too, wouldn't be that hard to block it off and only have the supermarket open.

Donegal Storm

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

6 weeks they're saying, so if they'd hurry up and get on with it that would be start of December.

I was in Letterkenny this afternoon and was surprised to see some of the places that were open. Harry Cory is hardly essential. Dunnes clothing section seems to be open too, wouldn't be that hard to block it off and only have the supermarket open.

Sounds a lot like the ridiculous €9 meal thing with pubs all summer. Small clothes shops were hardly the ones driving the increase yet because of some arbitrary nonsense rule thousands of people are now out of a job while the big supermarkets clean up

Good to see the decrease today at least, going by muffler's post that's the lowest in over a month

NIMAN

It's tough on some businesses being shut down when there is no evidence to say they were involved in making the numbers worse.

But I suppose it's handy for the authorities not to announce where all the clusters are being traced back to, otherwise they might have to answer tougher questions like why kids soccer training is now banned despite it producing no cases (that's an example, I'm not saying it didn't cause cases).

JoannieG

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Dunnes clothing section seems to be open too, wouldn't be that hard to block it off and only have the supermarket open.

Yeah, I agree that Harry Corry's is hardly essential but it would be very difficult to restrict access to every item in a supermarket that's not essential, eg, birthday cards, travel accessories, wrapping paper, etc. During the lock-down in March, I met a friend in the carpark in Dunnes, who was in buying a duvet, pillows and bed linen for an elderly relative who was being discharged from hospital after about 6 months. For her, the drapery section in Dunnes was essential. I also had to buy pyjamas in a hurry for a male relative who was in hospital and didn't have any - his blushes had to be saved!

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

NIMAN wrote: »

It's tough on some businesses being shut down when there is no evidence to say they were involved in making the numbers worse.

But I suppose it's handy for the authorities not to announce where all the clusters are being traced back to, otherwise they might have to answer tougher questions like why kids soccer training is now banned despite it producing no cases (that's an example, I'm not saying it didn't cause cases).

Things are being shut down because it's the only way to cut contacts when people are refusing to do it themselves. Yes, it's awful for people who are doing it and have now lost their only outlet for socialising but the few have ruined it for the many.

Technique

NIMAN wrote: »

It's tough on some businesses being shut down when there is no evidence to say they were involved in making the numbers worse.

But I suppose it's handy for the authorities not to announce where all the clusters are being traced back to, otherwise they might have to answer tougher questions like why kids soccer training is now banned despite it producing no cases (that's an example, I'm not saying it didn't cause cases).

Kids soccer training is allowed as long as it's non contact and no more than 15 people including coaches.

NIMAN

Technique wrote: »

Kids soccer training is allowed as long as it's non contact and no more than 15 people including coaches.

Ours was cancelled a couple of weeks back, same as gaa training.

I just think the club's were pre-empting the shutdowns.

Technique

Matches have been cancelled, so some clubs have made a decision not to train either.

ednwireland

2 old ladies in the town at lunchtime wondering why the shops were closed, think they may have been northerners !