Covid 19 Part XXXIV-249,437 ROI(4,906 deaths) 120,195 NI (2,145 deaths)(01/05)Read OP

ninebeanrows

Vicxas wrote: »

Because people travelling from another country could have a variant from Brazil or SA that would make the COVID situation here much worse.

But they’ve tested negative and have to quarantine at home?

Have you seen the Covid situation in South Africa?

Vaccines still cover these variants

There is no definitive evidence these variants make things worse anyway.

Brazil is in the crap as they have no restrictions and have let Covid tip through their population, Regardless of the variant that Spreading there they in a bad place

But that’s off topic

Going by your logic how long should we shut of from the world for for a minuscule level of risk?

Corholio

Vicxas wrote: »

Because people travelling from another country could have a variant from Brazil or SA that would make the COVID situation here much worse.

But someone here could already have it too and wandering round your local supermarket. Even if they didn't they could still have common covid, but yet could be freely wandering around with only 'advice' to stay home.

hmmm

Vicxas wrote: »

Because people travelling from another country could have a variant from Brazil or SA that would make the COVID situation here much worse.

I blame RTE for all this variant scaremongering.

Talking to some people in my family they think that there are variants in circulation which render the vaccines useless.

Stheno

hmmm wrote: »

I blame RTE for all this variant scaremongering.

Talking to some people in my family they think that there are variants in circulation which render the vaccines useless.

NPHET have done a fair bit of it too, along with the Taoiseach

Corholio

1 millionth vaccine administered in NI today. Great to see, more people on the island done the better.

hmmm

Stheno wrote: »

NPHET have done a fair bit of it too, along with the Taoiseach

I understand NPHET have a job to do and it's also their job to worry about these things so they will have a particular view, but reporters should do more than simply parrot what they are being told at press conferences. There are lots of dangerous viruses in circulation and we balance that risk with getting on with our lives. That's not to downplay Covid or encourage the deniers, but someone needs to be looking at the bigger picture also.

Stheno

hmmm wrote: »

I understand NPHET have a job to do and it's also their job to worry about these things so they will have a particular view, but reporters should do more than simply parrot what they are being told at press conferences. There are lots of dangerous viruses in circulation and we balance that risk with getting on with our lives. That's not to downplay Covid or encourage the deniers, but someone needs to be looking at the bigger picture also.

Fair point the media do seem to seize on the worst of the news

bikeman1

DebDynamite wrote: »

Since October, I’ve not been able to see my parents in the next county (bar the 3 week break at Christmas). We still don’t have a date for out of county travel - I’ve heard July being mentioned. So from October to possibly June/July, we can’t travel outside our own county. This is the kind of stuff that affects the majority of people. Never mind that, since January we’ve not been able to travel further than 5km unless for a very small list of essential reasons.

I’ll be honest and say I don’t know one person who has travelled abroad in the past year or intends to for the rest of this year. MHQ affects the general population the least. It was definitely worth a try.

This exactly the problem with trying to explain to people why MHQ is wrong and not acceptable to lock people who are healthy away.

While the travel to your parents is frustrating, the same applies to people from abroad or who have family there.

Some people have their whole lives spread out across the EU in particular. I’m Irish, but have family in the UK, Spain, the US and France with close friends in Italy. That’s just me. Now think for a second if something happens here or with any of them abroad, I’ll be up and gone or they would be back to Ireland. I’m talking about a family issue, bereavement or serious illness.

You can do the same here in Ireland, hop in the car or bus and you’re there. These people who have embraced global and European life are now treated as disgusting infected people because they get a clear PCR test and take a plane with PCR cleared people to make their essential journey.

Just because you have a local family and friends circle, the same is the case for very many Irish and other citizens living here. MHQ is disgusting and the whole mess should stop immediately.

Where do we stop? Why don’t we lock away the 400-500 people per day testing POSITIVE? They have no checks or balances out on them and they are infectious.

Governing by Twitter or Facebook is no way to run a country but that is what we have now.

cameramonkey

Posted this before but it is worth posting again I think. Gives a good idea why we have to be careful until we reach a hight % of people vaccinated.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/02/18/967462483/how-herd-immunity-works-and-what-stands-in-its-way?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&t=1617819526505

gozunda

hmmm wrote: »

1% of cases is a problem? And why was it a problem 4 days ago and not now?

I'm looking at a news report which says that Germany has 0.8% prevalence of B.1.351 - why are they not on the list?

It's not good enough that we have not been clearly told what the criteria is. Germany, Poland and India could as easily be on the list as they have expanding epidemics, and might end up on it next week - potentially impacting on hundreds of thousands of people who live and work here.

If the new strategy is zero-Covid let's say that and have the public debate. At the moment the plan is full of holes and contradictions.

Well that 1% is an estimated 8-10,000 cases and Isreal todate has experienced over double the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people compared to Germany

But why is / was it a problem? Covid is dynamic with regards to the rate of infection and can go from zero to 10 in a very short period of time. See Christmas period here as an example

The other difference between Germany and Israel's figures on the South African variant is that it's believed to be fairly widespread in Isreal but "not widespread" in Germany. It also depends whethed such cases in a country are climbing or declining

Btw we do know what the criteria are - and that has been clearly called out

Travel restrictions are in place to protect public health and to mitigate the risk of new variants of COVID-19 entering the country

https://www.dfa.ie/travel/travel-advice/coronavirus/general-covid-19-travel-advisory/

There is no zero covid policy here - rather varients of concern remain the main criteria for discouraging people from travel from countries where one or more VOCs are a significant issue. And therefore, that is where precautions must still be taken.

Doctor Jimbob

gozunda wrote: »

You're incorrect there.

Current regulations are:



https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/travel_and_recreation/travel_to_ireland/travel_to_ireland_during_covid.html#l87fcf

Up to this week

You can travel to / from Belgium for work
You can travel to / from Belgium for a funeral

With the new MHQ rules thst those travelling from red list countries require two weeks quarantine which obviously rules out a lot of funeral attendances

Those arriving from red list countries are unlikely to be provided with an automatic exemption regardless of how awful that is for those concerned.

As for work related travel from Red list countries (which now includes Belgium btw) - any politicians who do so - will end up in MHQ as well.

Sometimes I wonder if people genuinely believe what they post.

Not a hope will a politician go into MHQ, regardless of what the rules state.

DebDynamite

bikeman1 wrote: »

This exactly the problem with trying to explain to people why MHQ is wrong and not acceptable to lock people who are healthy away.

While the travel to your parents is frustrating, the same applies to people from abroad or who have family there.

Some people have their whole lives spread out across the EU in particular. I’m Irish, but have family in the UK, Spain, the US and France with close friends in Italy. That’s just me. Now think for a second if something happens here or with any of them abroad, I’ll be up and gone or they would be back to Ireland. I’m talking about a family issue, bereavement or serious illness.

You can do the same here in Ireland, hop in the car or bus and you’re there. These people who have embraced global and European life are now treated as disgusting infected people because they get a clear PCR test and take a plane with PCR cleared people to make their essential journey.

Just because you have a local family and friends circle, the same is the case for very many Irish and other citizens living here. MHQ is disgusting and the whole mess should stop immediately.

Where do we stop? Why don’t we lock away the 400-500 people per day testing POSITIVE? They have no checks or balances out on them and they are infectious.

Governing by Twitter or Facebook is no way to run a country but that is what we have now.

Before the pandemic, which do you think people would’ve found the most draconian - confine people to 2/5km from their homes for the majority of the pandemic and only let out for a few small list of essential reasons or hotel quarantine those entering the country for 2 weeks, starting a year after the whole pandemic began?

You can bet it would be the former as it affects nearly everyone, but yet probably because we’ve become so used to it now, it’s MHQ which seems disgusting to some people.

WoollyRedHat

Can the debate about MHQ move to its own dedicated thread? It's becoming laboured to read the back and forth here.

gozunda

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

Sometimes I wonder if people genuinely believe what they post.

Not a hope will a politician go into MHQ, regardless of what the rules state.

General sideswipe eh? Maybe best stick to discussion of the topic in hand.

The point is MHQ is there to discourage travel. So maybe we'll have some more of those zoom calls to Brussels and a lot less eejits coming here for non essential reasons.

paulie21

455 cases 14 deaths

vienne86

paulie21 wrote: »

455 cases 14 deaths

No county breakdown today. It should surface via the Covid tracker app in due course.

Doctor Jimbob

gozunda wrote: »

General sideswipe eh? Maybe best stick to discussion of the topic in hand.

The point is MHQ is there to discourage travel. So maybe we'll have some more of those zoom calls to Brussels and a lot less eejits coming here for non essential reasons.

I don't have an issue with making travel difficult, or even blocking it entirely, for non essential reasons. The current measures block even essential travel for a lot of people, which is a lot harder to accept.

prunudo

paulie21 wrote: »

455 cases 14 deaths

Cases and swabs tracking fairly close to each other the last couple of days, not a huge difference between both if I remember correctly.

WoollyRedHat

WoollyRedHat wrote: »

Can the debate about MHQ move to its own dedicated thread? It's becoming laboured to read the back and forth here.

https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2058088164/363/

gozunda

prunudo wrote: »

Whatever about the arguements about mhq, I would advise anyone who has not seen their parents to please change that quickly. Life is too short not to see them for months on end. Obviously do so in a safe manner, outside in the garden or whatever you deem correct. No checkpoint or government regulation is going to stop me checking up on them to make sure they are okay. Zoom, vidoes call may have cut it last March but not anymore after months of level 5 and no sign of intra county travel being lifted.

I've no idea why ideas such as people allegedly not being permitted to visit parents etc are still being referred to.

From day 1 - restrictions have always been allowed for essential travel for "Caring for older or vulnerable people, particularly if they live alone"

Even if that is only to check up on parents or to bring supplies or groceries - it is permitted.

Way too much misinformation still circulating about these kind of things.

saabsaab

'We are in a race against time to get global transmission rates low enough to prevent the emergence and spread of new variants. The danger is that variants will arise that can overcome the immunity conferred by vaccinations or prior infection.'


https://theconversation.com/new-covid-variants-have-changed-the-game-and-vaccines-will-not-be-enough-we-need-global-maximum-suppression-157870


We may have only one good shot at this.

Always_Running

Last seven days

Positive swabs 2921 (7 day average 417)
Cases 2971 (7 day average 424)

Previous seven days.

Positive swabs 3950 (7 day average 564)
Cases 3785 (7 day average 541)

hmmm

saabsaab wrote: »

'We are in a race against time to get global transmission rates low enough to prevent the emergence and spread of new variants. The danger is that variants will arise that can overcome the immunity conferred by vaccinations or prior infection.'

That's one view from a "Professor of Health Psychology"

Meanwhile from a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology who wrote the book called "Principles of Virology":
https://www.thestreet.com/latest-news/there-are-no-covid-super-strains-yet-says-virologist-vincent-racaniello
"I am not worried at all that this virus is going to out-evolve vaccines."

I'm sure neither of us are qualified to judge who is right, but the debate in Ireland (led by RTE) would lead you to believe that some super-Covid which renders all our vaccines useless is just a foreigner away.

prunudo

gozunda wrote: »

I've no idea why ideas such as people allegedly not being permitted to visit parents etc are still being referred to.

From day 1 - restrictions have always been allowed for essential travel for "Caring for older or vulnerable people, particularly if they live alone"

Even if that is only to check up on parents or to bring supplies or groceries - it is permitted.

Way too much misinformation still circulating about these kind of things.

Maybe because for months on end we have been told things we can't do, ie can't visit other households and they rarely tell us the things we can do. I for one, have never heard MM, any other senior member of government or Nphet tell us to visit parents or vulnerable people.

saabsaab

hmmm wrote: »

That's one view from a "Professor of Health Psychology"

Meanwhile from a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology who wrote the book called "Principles of Virology":
https://www.thestreet.com/latest-news/there-are-no-covid-super-strains-yet-says-virologist-vincent-racaniello
"I am not worried at all that this virus is going to out-evolve vaccines."

I'm sure neither of us are qualified to judge who is right, but the debate in Ireland (led by RTE) would lead you to believe that some super-Covid which renders all our vaccines useless is just a foreigner away.

It could be that a super-Covid which renders all our vaccines useless is just a foreigner away. Its not worth the risk especially after what all this has cost in lives and otherwise to get this far.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Always_Running wrote: »

Last seven days

Positive swabs 2921 (7 day average 417)
Cases 2971 (7 day average 424)

Previous seven days.

Positive swabs 3950 (7 day average 564)
Cases 3785 (7 day average 541)

Its really nice to see progress in the case and swam numbers falling.

Personally I'm giving a lot of credit to the test centres driving down the asymptomatic case numbers which is breaking the chains of transmission? Would most people agree or is there a different answer for the numbers collapsing.

eagle eye

Am I the only one disappointed with the numbers? I was hoping we'd be in the 200's by the end of this week but it's not looking like we are anywhere close to that.

CIARAN_BOYLE

eagle eye wrote: »

Am I the only one disappointed with the numbers? I was hoping we'd be in the 200's by the end of this week but it's not looking like we are anywhere close to that.

When did you hope that?

I hoped that we would be around 50 by the end of this week but I abandoned that hope over a month ago when things were flattening.

We have only had real downward movement in numbers in the last week or so.

boardise

Doctor Jimbob wrote: »

Travel is allowed for essential purposes like TDs running off to Brussels for a meeting that could have taken place on zoom. It's not allowed for non-essential purposes like attending the funeral of a family member.

Evidently this is a well thought out and rational plan. I have no idea why anyone is taking issue with it.

Our government has been fond of telling us the virus doesn't care about x and y. Someone should remind government that this fact also applies to them.

Pragmatically though-funerals normally see tens of thousans ofpeople in motion each day-with strong inclination to close contact with kissing , hugging etc.-as against small numbers of politicians in motion under controlled conditions. Quite a difference in the risk factor i would think.
That said, I think the funeral attendance numbers were too restrictive.

Rebelbrowser

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Its really nice to see progress in the case and swam numbers falling.

Personally I'm giving a lot of credit to the test centres driving down the asymptomatic case numbers which is breaking the chains of transmission? Would most people agree or is there a different answer for the numbers collapsing.

Definitely helping. Rather unscientifically I do think there is seasonality / vitamin D / sunshine element too as we move into longer days and nearer summer. And I know covid is rampant in many sunny countries but then they don't have the (relatively) strick lockdown provisions we have. If they had our provisions in their climate they might have feck all covid.