Coronavirus ROI/NI number 4

[eggandonion]

I don't believe it, would it ever go away!

Underage GAA has certainly closed down, our club has said grounds will be locked from midnight tomorrow as per level 5 protocol.

Glad I'm not in the market for Aldi's Christmas toy stock any more...
www.irishtimes.com/business/retail-and-services/aldi-to-impose-limits-as-christmas-toys-go-on-sale-1.4386004

There was a principal on Liveline. She said if one child tests positive in a class the HSE contacts her and only the children in that child's pod group have to go home and isolate. Not the other 25 children or the teacher or any SNA's in the class. The probably small for its numbers classroom can't even get a deep clean.
Sounds nuts and I'm not a medic.

Maybe it would completely kill our economy completely and prob wouldn’t work with such close proximity to Europe etc but sometimes I think rather than this lockdown , open up , lockdown, all these businesses opening and shutting would it not be better to just lock down for months , close all the airports etc like New Zealand and aggressively try to irradiate it.
Maybe it’s too late for it.
I don’t envy the government but the fact is underinvestment and gross mismanagement in our health system by hse administration has led to our economy held to ransom. This isn’t a big country , we should have an excellent health service , we have pretty high taxes.. The fact is our health service doesn’t have the capacity at all. We have actually had a pretty strict lockdown in comparison to the rest of Europe. Our pubs have only just opened!! France , Germany , etc are doing curfews even though their levels are v high, we can’t even open let alone do a curfew because our heath system is so weak.
It’s not good enough. Way too many people in Ireland in public sector jobs doing the bare minimum.
I don’t know what the answer is but I am also v hopeful for a vaccine.

High numbers again today, I see meath have the highest numbers, I bet it was from that big GAA match 2 weeks ago where everyone was piled on top of each other at the match and the pubs packed then in afterwards.

Hopefully this level 5 is abided to, because I've a pain in my face following rules, then I see photos going viral online of matches and pubs and parties.

The WHO have actually discouraged short lockdowns as they only slow it down slightly for it to soar in numbers once reopened.

That's not true, though was misrepresented by loads of people (esp by Trump and Twitter eejits with an agenda; less so in newspapers, etc.).

The WHO spokesperson said that lockdowns shouldn't be the primary means of controlling covid because they make poor people poorer, but he never said they don't work. They do work: and infection rates don't shoot up straight afterwards either. The WHO point was that lockdowns have negative repercussions (well, yeah) and shouldn't be used unless really needed, like when the primary means of control (social distancing, hand washing, mask wearing, track and trace, etc.) aren't working.

So are we at that point here? Yes, probably. As a pp said, a sizeable minority have been taking the piss in ignoring the primary means of controlling covid... so I blame them entirely for the need for lockdown now. At least this way, people will be free to travel for Xmas, which is the main reason for the timing. Any more delay and the lockdown would have to eat in the xmas period.

It could be worse. Have you seen what's going on in Manchester? Numbers are about 4 x times what they are here and no lockdown because the UK gov won't stump up for pandemic payments for people whose jobs disappear in lockdown. Boris and his chums make Mehole and crew look competent...

They have greater icu capacity even in the Uk than here. We only have lockdowns as our health care system is grossly inadequate. I have family in France and their numbers are very high and apart from masks , working from home etc they have curfews... their businesses can still function on a daily basis. Pub have only JUST opened here and they are closed again, bars have been open in France since May...
Of course we know lockdowns work, that’s obvious. It will slow down the virus but it will be there when we open back up and we’ll have a lockdown January etc....unless a vaccine proves successful and we have access to it.
The fact is Ireland has had a really strict lockdown and opened up slower than even Italy and now we are back to a stricter lockdown than other European countries. We have no other choice and I totally get that. Unfortunately that’s in part to our badly run health system , our businesses and economy are paying for that now.

Do you really think Irish people would accept a curfew if daytime businesses could stay open? Not convinced...

Honestly a curfew is nothing in comparison to what we have now . Everything closed at 10 vs everything closed.
Of course I think they would!

Well here we are again - I haven't been on this thread since the first lockdown!!! I think if you had told me that we would be here again in late October I would not have managed to get through the first one.

I have just received a WhatsApp from DS's GAA to say that travel outside the 5km is permitted for children to attend sport training - I am sure all the hairdressers and bookshop workers and all the other people with no jobs as of Thursday are so relieved that their children can still train for under age sport

Did anyone read Fintan O'Toole's piece this morning noting how 11 people made this decision and none of them was a woman - indeed, there are no women involved in any of these decisions despite loads of highly qualified women with the capabilities working in the HSE and the Universities. Of course, all the below the line comments were from the usual misogynists going so what - but it really made me think, who decided the GAA was more important to wellbeing than hairdressers??????

Also, I looked around the world and noted no women involved in any Covid related decision making in the WHO or international governments (with the notable exception of Jacinta Ahern and Angela Merkel). I will toddle over to the feminism board to discuss this instead of sidelining this discussion.

This one is harder to face. I think some of the restrictions are harsh many stores are well set up with social distancing, hand gel, many won't recover after a second lockdown.

Having been in work this afternoon, a lot of women were out and about trying to sort shopping and things before lockdown. Buying jigsaws, art stuff, kids shoes. I assume the men were doing manly things.
I agree, a few more women need to be involved in decision making. Or a lot more women!

It's interesting that there are so few women making decisions, I thought the nphet membership looked very balanced - www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/who-are-the-nphet-members-overseeing-ireland-s-response-to-covid-19-1.4241823. So why have they been bumped out of the way?

The GAA exemption is all down to money and connections IMV.

If the bods in GAA voluntarily decided to stop everything they would be well respected for that, given that the rest of us are complying as best we can.

Follow the money. Even though the players are not paid. Mad.

This is a very useful website for calculating where 5km is from your home. 2kmfromhome.com It turns out that I can go in the back gate of DD's school, but not the front gate which is about 10 or 15 meters outside my range.

That's funny, BlackAmericanoNoSugar. I looked it up there. Half of the estate where my mother lives is inside my 5km zone, and the half where she lives is not.

Looking at things in the above context I'm so glad we live in Ireland at the moment.... Manchester is being treated so shoddily....
Sorry again for the rant but yesterday evening approx 12 kids aged 5 to 13 on the green playing, no social distancing, 8 different households mixing & running between front gardens...
I know parents are working from home but surely they cam manage to keep their kids in for a couple of hours after school.... Same parents are the ones complaining on the residents whatssapp about no toys in smyths, can't go to the canaries & they are petrified the schools won't return after midterm...
Do they not understand the power is in their hands & as a family everyone needs to reduce contacts to only essential contacts & school pods....

I know parents are working from home but surely they cam manage to keep their kids in for a couple of hours after school
It is frustrating especially as it is round 2 for the DC.
My DS cried screamed rocked ALL DAY yesterday I don't know how I'll keep him entertained for 6 weeks he is driving me insane already.

The HSE are no longer going to contact close contacts of a person who tested positive with Covid19. It's up to the person who has Covid19 to contact them themselves.

Have I picked that up right ?

Level 5 restrictions and yet half assed tracing.

I know emerald, it's so tough I'm working from home also... I just think if the households keep mixing the virus will still spread so we all have to take responsibility, company's need to be compassionate to work from home parents also....

The tracing people have a backlog to work through plus a record number of tests were done at the weekend. Gp surgeries have been asked to help, but are too busy.

The HSE are no longer going to contact close contacts of a person who tested positive with Covid19. It's up to the person who has Covid19 to contact them themselves.

This is a fucking shambles

Thus article is worth a read

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/21514530/europe-covid-second-wave-update

I know, 321mama. It's frustrating. I've told my DD who is ten that there is no more mixing on the green now. She is old enough to understand. I had some grumbling from one of my teenagers about not being able to see her friends any more and how illogical it is that she can see them in school and not outside school. I didn't give her any satisfaction. I saw one friend twice during the summer and another friend once, for feck sake. We are all making sacrifices (or should be!).

Also, it's very worrying about the delay/backlog with contact tracing.

I saw a couple of weeks ago they were hiring an additional 65 people for contact tracing. Surely that should be in the hundreds? If they don’t then need them then happy days, but over egging has to be better than under?

I just don’t think they’re taking this aspect of it seriously enough.

So with the shambles of the contact tracing the numbers with Covid19 could be much higher.
If you are feeling very poorly you may be unable to contact your contacts.