We've added more acute beds to hospitals and they can add more icu beds if needed, however there is only so much space to put theses beds so they can't just add as many as they like. There is also the issue of staffing these beds. Also we don't have many hospitals, Dublin serves many of the Counties that don't have hospitals.
While people from other Countries think we are over reacting with our confirmed cases and hospital admissions, for our population, those numbers are high.
They are doing this level 5 lock down to prevent the hospitals not being able to cope. Yes, we have a shit health service but it's not as bad as some. They have put money into this and are trying to prevent things getting out of hand but they can only do so much with the buildings they have. They have used beds in private hospitals to try and cope.
They also said this lock down is to save Christmas, they feel if the numbers come down after 6 weeks, people will be able to celebrate Christmas with family and friends. Of course the virus will still be around but it'll mean dealing with the cases in January, so after a shit year people got to have a Christmas, instead of letting people carry on as normal now, cases continue rising and come December they end up locking down and people are stuck home with no contact.
It's not a full lock down like the first time. Essential shops are opened, pubs and restaurants can do takeaway, certain sports still allowed behind closed doors, schools, creches, childcare still open, flights still operating. The first time everything closed, pubs never actually got to re open in Dublin properly since the beginning. Country pubs only opened back up a few weeks ago. We had 1 hour 45 mins in them and we had to eat something over 9 euro. We've had recently outdoor dining for 15 people in total.
Like every other Country we have our rule followers and breakers, we're not sheep and we do have our own opinions, however we do value the expertise and guidance of NEPHET. There are many things our government do that piss us all off, I sometimes wonder what is running the Country but there comes a time that we have to listen and follow the guidelines. I think anyone with a brain knows this looking at how the USA is handling things.
We all look at other Countries and laugh at how they're handling things, people think Ireland over react and are strict, are sheep and it's not true, we just want to be able to have a little bit of normality back, be able to see friends and family safely, but we have the house parties, the ones who think the virus is not real and the non mask wearers.