Galway Races/Arts festival, closing for COVID?

westgolf

Ashleigh1986 wrote: »

Of course the economy is extremely important that goes without saying. However people will be very cautious about how they will now spend there time after the business closure ban has been lifted. Will they want to pack into a public house on shop street during race week? I don't think they will the same goes for the racecourse ,Gaa matches and even hotels! Who knows who has been in the hotel room the night before.

So definitely Health has to placed higher than the needs of the economy right now.

Galway business's are going to need all the help when/ if they're to reopen.Those 3 weeks will be vital for any business going forward .If galway remains closed for those 3 weeks the problems
for many business's would go to another level .

As people already know the arts / racing festivals can get some businesss through the winter up to Christmas .[/quote]

This is it in one short paragraph.

pure.conya

Whereisgalway wrote: »

Surely people's health is more important than a few hoteliers, Publicans and bookies

LOL ðŸ˜

pure.conya

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

I say again Too Late for What????

So, do you think everybody connected to the races and arts festival all book their flights, accommodation and the rest the week before they arrive to Galway? The time to cancel is most definitely now

pure.conya

pure.conya wrote: »

So, do you think everybody connected to the races and arts festival all book their flights, accommodation and the rest the week before they arrive to Galway? The time to cancel is most definitely now

No it isn’t, any decision can wait until at least June. It would be stupid to do it now before seeing how the next 2 months pan out.

Ashleigh1986

There's no need to cancel galways busiest 3 weeks just yet .
If come the 1st of June we are left with just Irish tourists ,that are allowed to travel to galway so be it .
We will certainly know a awful lot more in 8 weeks time .
We have huge advantages over other countries / cities regarding the coranavirus .
(1) we are an island
(2) our population is extremely small especially outside Dublin .
(3) so far the authorities have been doing a good job .
(4) a high percentage of the Irish people are doing what's been asked ....
At the end of this Irish people will want to let their hair down and enjoy a break .
I know some will say they won't have the money , but there will plenty that will just want to party even if it's just a couple of days in galway .

Lydia Tasteless Vial

Lydia Tasteless Vial wrote: »

No it isn’t, any decision can wait until at least June. It would be stupid to do it now before seeing how the next 2 months pan out.

Some things to consider

1. Most international performers won't be able to travel to Galway to perform
2. No large gatherings will be permitted until such time as there has been a large enough % (95%) of the population either infected or inoculated. We are currently have 0.07% of the population known to be infected.
3. Sponsorship has dried up everywhere already, radio stations, newspapers etc are on the verge of collapsing. There won't be any spare funds for the arts or nags at that time.

The ONLY thing that could have things back to normal by then would be a vaccine. That's still a year away at best.

So, by all means, wait until June to announce the cancellation, but it will be cancelled or run in such a way as to negate any benefit to the local economy i.e. Behind closed doors with no visitors to the local area due to the closed hotels/restaurants/bars.

Also, this https://www.rte.ie/amp/1127889/

youngrun

Deleted User wrote: »

Some things to consider

1. Most international performers won't be able to travel to Galway to perform
2. No large gatherings will be permitted until such time as there has been a large enough % (95%) of the population either infected or inoculated. We are currently have 0.07% of the population known to be infected.
3. Sponsorship has dried up everywhere already, radio stations, newspapers etc are on the verge of collapsing. There won't be any spare funds for the arts or nags at that time.

The ONLY thing that could have things back to normal by then would be a vaccine. That's still a year away at best.

So, by all means, wait until June to announce the cancellation, but it will be cancelled or run in such a way as to negate any benefit to the local economy i.e. Behind closed doors with no visitors to the local area due to the closed hotels/restaurants/bars.

Also, this https://www.rte.ie/amp/1127889/

Cannot see anything happening in Galway this summer.

A vaccine is only about half effective at treating cases so that is no panacea. https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/seasonal-influenza/prevention-and-control/vaccine-effectiveness

The way this is going everyone will be on long term lockdown as there is no clear way out of it given current public health concerns

It is an impossible fix . Most of us will never work again or see our parents or friends ever again.

ben.schlomo

youngrun wrote: »

Cannot see anything happening in Galway this summer.

A vaccine is only about half effective at treating cases so that is no panacea. https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/seasonal-influenza/prevention-and-control/vaccine-effectiveness

The way this is going everyone will be on long term lockdown as there is no clear way out of it given current public health concerns

It is an impossible fix . Most of us will never work again or see our parents or friends ever again.

You should really take a break from being online, it's clearly not doing you any favours judging by your posts. Get some exercise or read a book, anything else but being online.

Whereisgalway

ben.schlomo wrote: »

You should really take a break from being online, it's clearly not doing you any favours judging by your posts. Get some exercise or read a book, anything else but being online.

Honestly there is a lot going on in the World right now, no need to be acting the maggot in here, most of us like yourselves and youngrun are trying to adjust to a new normal and are busy, no need to be patronising

Mrs OBumble

youngrun wrote: »

It is an impossible fix . Most of us will never work again or see our parents or friends ever again.

BS.

At worst we just need to let everyone catch is slowly, so that we don't run out of ICU beds.

At best, it mutated next week so that the symptoms aren't so deadly.

And lots of people are still working BTW.

biko

Although Schlomo may be a bit direct your comment

youngrun wrote: »

Most of us will never work again or see our parents or friends ever again.

seems very depressed, and I understand. This is a very stressful time for all of us.

There are resources to help https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058062109

youngrun

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

BS.

At worst we just need to let everyone catch is slowly, so that we don't run out of ICU beds.

At best, it mutated next week so that the symptoms aren't so deadly.

And lots of people are still working BTW.

I am only expressing my view

Must be 25 per cent plus not working including construction sector . And rising. Up from 4 per cent on dole early March

Government say the restrictions will continue . Indefinitely , There is no exit strategy and no pathway per them I am hearing

This is not going to end soon.

No Races. No Festivals, and no future for Galway at present.

youngrun

biko wrote: »

Although Schlomo may be a bit direct your comment

seems very depressed, and I understand. This is a very stressful time for all of us.

There are resources to help https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058062109

Thanks.

Whereisgalway

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

BS.

At worst we just need to let everyone catch is slowly, so that we don't run out of ICU beds..

Borris Johnson has the same thinking as that

Mrs OBumble

Whereisgalway wrote: »

Borris Johnson has the same thinking as that

Nope. His plan had them catch it up-front.

We are about flattening the curve - not zeroing it.

Whereisgalway

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Nope. His plan had them catch it up-front.

We are about flattening the curve - not zeroing it.

Research is inconclusive if you can catch it a second time but it’s a resounding fact that you can die and make no mistake about it mrs o bumble people of all ages have and will continue to die from catching it once

grbear

I'd say a call will have to be made on the Arts Festival in the next week or two. Considering the international element of the whole thing I'd say it will probably be cancelled.

I don't see the need to cancel the races just yet. Wait until the May bank holiday has passed and then make the call one way or the other.

youngrun

youngrun wrote: »

I am only expressing my view

Must be 25 per cent plus not working including construction sector . And rising. Up from 4 per cent on dole early March

Government say the restrictions will continue . Indefinitely , There is no exit strategy and no pathway per them I am hearing

This is not going to end soon.

No Races. No Festivals, and no future for Galway at present.

While the situation is not good it’s also not as bad as you are making out. Sure many sectors are temporarily being hit hard but this is not an ordinary recession type scenario and the work and trade etc has not just disappeared it’s simply on hold.

Also there are a lot of sectors not badly impacted, particularly things like IT and other tech areas which would be traditionally hit very hard. The Galway based company I work for is not impacted, we can all work from home indefinitely (I do it regularly anyway) and I know many more people in a similar scenario.

It’s not good for your mental health to have such a bad outlook.

Utopia Parkway

youngrun wrote: »

I am only expressing my view

Must be 25 per cent plus not working including construction sector . And rising. Up from 4 per cent on dole early March

Government say the restrictions will continue . Indefinitely , There is no exit strategy and no pathway per them I am hearing

This is not going to end soon.

No Races. No Festivals, and no future for Galway at present.

Governments cannot hide their populations away indefinitely. It's just not sustainable economically or even psychologically and will end up causing massive problems in its own right. Eventually things will have to reopen and go back to normal whether we like it or not. The only question is when and that will probably differ depending on how badly affected individual countries are.

Utopia Parkway

Utopia Parkway wrote: »

Governments cannot hide their populations away indefinitely. It's just not sustainable economically or even psychologically and will end up causing massive problems in its own right. Eventually things will have to reopen and go back to normal whether we like it or not. The only question is when and that will probably differ depending on how badly affected individual countries are.

Its definitely possible to do, but not until you have sufficient testing capacity to keep testing a large volume of people on an ongoing basis. For Ireland that would be about 50,000 a week. We were at 30k tests in total as of last Sat.

South Korea have done this and managed covid-19 without any major lockdowns or impacts to society at large. That being said, they also issued every household a qty (10?) of face masks and had a continuous supply of them with no price gouging allowed

So yeah, you can do it, but you need to have a lot of things in place first

If you took Dublin out of the equation and maybe cork you would be left with massively reduced numbers of cases and very few deaths.

I wonder would an easing of restrictions on a country by county basis be feasible before a full opening up again, keeping Dublin fully locked down, close all roads out of it (bar for food delivery etc).

Just a thought I had off the back of 0 confirmed cases in Galway last night.

Smegging hell

My guess would be that they will not go ahead as public events even if there's a broader easing of restrictions by the end of next summer. The authorities may avoid major events going ahead until a vaccine is obtained. Asian countries are introducing new restrictions now after an emerging 'second wave' of cases, showing that we are in this for the long-haul.

brutes1

zell12 wrote: »

There were 3 new cases confirmed in Co Galway yesterday

Many agree we should build a wall around the Pale :pac:
Only 50% (80/160) are in Cork/Dublin surrounds

Thats not very many for a pandemic ?

zell12

brutes1 wrote: »

Thats not very many for a pandemic ?

It's just the clusters of Covid19
https://www.thejournal.ie/covid-clusters-nursing-homes-ireland-5065550-Apr2020/

brutes1

zell12 wrote: »

It's just the clusters of Covid19
https://www.thejournal.ie/covid-clusters-nursing-homes-ireland-5065550-Apr2020/

Ok yes but 3 cases in Galway ? Not a lot . 90 odd in 5 weeks is low

brutes1

brutes1 wrote: »

Ok yes but 3 cases in Galway ? Not a lot . 90 odd in 5 weeks is low

That 90 can turn into 900 awful fast as evidenced all around the world

Wompa1

brutes1 wrote: »

Ok yes but 3 cases in Galway ? Not a lot . 90 odd in 5 weeks is low

That's 90 confirmed cases. Doesn't include those not confirmed either due to much more restricted testing criteria at a play, the delay in getting test results or those who are not showing symptoms and haven't even thought to get tested. Actual number is likely much higher but I don't think the Government or HSE is at fault, it just is what it is for now....

90 (actually it's 98 as of midnight Wednesday) is low but by our medical experts own admission this week, testing has slowed and there is a global shortage of the reagent used for testing. Our peak in the curve is expected around Easter.

Word is that all COVID cases will be handled by public hospitals. The non-COVID patients will go to the two private hospitals. It's being reported tonight that a hotel will be converted to fit 120 beds beginning next week. The experts must be anticipating at least the potential that we will far surpass the capacity of Merlin and UCHG ICU (and other converted bed space).

cooperguy

Lydia Tasteless Vial wrote: »

If you took Dublin out of the equation and maybe cork you would be left with massively reduced numbers of cases and very few deaths.

I wonder would an easing of restrictions on a country by county basis be feasible before a full opening up again, keeping Dublin fully locked down, close all roads out of it (bar for food delivery etc).

Just a thought I had off the back of 0 confirmed cases in Galway last night.

Once everyone goes out again the cases will reappear. We're in some form of restrictions until there is a treatment/vaccine

cooperguy

cooperguy wrote: »

Once everyone goes out again the cases will reappear. We're in some form of restrictions until there is a treatment/vaccine

The lock down is also to allow those hidde, milder cases that can be the most dangerous in terms of transmission, to run their course and become non-infectious

JustAThought

Of the three thousand plus known and confirmed covid 19 cases in Itelad over nine hundred of these are in ICU in hospitals. Nursing home deaths are not even testing for covid 19 in autopsies ( even if they are conducted) not to mention the masses of unverified cases that also probably exist in our populations. While people are losing their livliehoods, jobs and possibly homes and a fifth of the population is hiding behind closed doors unable to see their grandchildren or visit loved ones it really beggars belief that Galway - one of the greater hubs for coronavirus infections want to have a arts/horseracing/ infection party. Yes businesses will be hit but how many people do you want to die or how many months do you want the enforced lockdown to have to continue because people will not play by the rules?

Look at Italy - 8+ pages of lists of deaths a day in their local newspapers, military rule on the streets, fines and imprisonment for thise out without a government permit because they would no respect their lockdown and over 12,000 Italians dead - so far.

Im sure the horses and theatre will keep til 2021 tragic and all as it is.