Coronavirus: One Death, 240 New Cases Reported

National news on Thursday 17th September.

Latest figures:

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been informed that 1 person with COVID-19 has died.

There has now been a total of 1,789 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight Wednesday 16th September, the HPSC has been notified of 240 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 32,023* confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland. 

Of the cases notified today;

• 119 are men / 120 are women
• 61% are under 45 years of age
• 47% are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case
• 44 cases have been identified as community transmission
• 119 in Dublin, 19 in Wicklow, 17 in Kildare, 16 in Donegal, 15 in Waterford, 10 in Limerick, 8 in Cork, 6 in Louth, 5 in Wexford and the remaining 24 cases are located in Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Galway, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Tipperary, Westmeath.

The HSE is working to identify any contacts the patients may have had to provide them with information and advice to prevent further spread.

The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community.

Dr. Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said; “50% of today’s cases are in Dublin. We are now seeing a higher proportion of cases in older age groups.

“Act now to save lives. Limit your contacts as much as possible. Assume you and those you meet are infectious, keep your distance and do your part to keep others safe.”

*Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 16 confirmed cases. The figure of 32,023 confirmed cases reflects this.

Green List:

Just seven countries have made the updated travel greenlist. 

It will come into effect on Monday, with the existing list in effect until midnight Sunday.

The general advisory to avoid non-essential travel remains in place, except for countries on the 'Green List', and for certain exempted categories.

From Monday people can travel to Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland and when returning to Ireland they will not have to restrict their movements.

All the countries on the list have a 14 day incidence rate of less than 25 per 100,000. 

The Department of Foreign Affairs is reminding people that many countries, including some of those on the green list are imposing quarantine, testing or other restrictions on arrivals from abroad.

Hungary, Italy, Slovakia Greece, Norway and Estonia have been removed from the Green list with effect from Monday.

Aer Lingus says it's concerned at the approach taken by the government and says it doesn't represent a step towards alignment with the European Commission's free movement proposal. 

DFA Travel Advice and Green List have been updated to reflect the latest ECDC figures. For more information, please see: https://t.co/c1yqzTatk9

— DFATravelWise (@dfatravelwise) September 17, 2020

Dublin:

It's widely accepted Dublin will be placed on a higher level of restrictions from tomorrow. 

The debate going on now is how high that should be. 

It will be at least level three restrictions - but NPHET is discussing whether it needs to move higher - perhaps to a level 3.5. 

This is somewhat catered for in the roadmap where further recommendations can be added to a level. 

Travel out of Dublin is likely to be stopped after tomorrow's cabinet meeting, while travel into the capital is also set to be restricted to absolutely essential work. 

Students will be allowed to travel into the capital - but at third level institutions will be told to not have physical, in person classes unless it's absolutely essential. 

NPHET has concluded its meeting, the recommendations will now go to a government steering group to be considered by top civil servants across a number of departments.

A decision and announcement is unlikely to be made until tomorrow evening by the cabinet as they consider how to manage the increasing spread of COVID in Dublin.

Tomas Ryan, an immunology professor at Trinity College Dublin, says the need for action is clear:

There's a warning the hospitality industry is on the verge of collapse ahead of tighter coronavirus restrictions being brought in.

The hospitality industry has already suffered closures, lay-offs and large scale profit losses due to the pandemic.

And it's clear the prospect of any further restrictions has worried the industry about the potential impact.

Paul Gallagher, manager of Buswells Hotel in Dublin, says that if people in Dublin are told not to leave their county - it could have a huge impact on the hospitality sector:

The latest data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre shows there have now been over 2,000 covid outbreaks in private homes.

More than 1,400 of them have been in the east of the country.

The group says the focus needs to be on the transmission of the virus in the suburbs and people's homes rather than businesses.

Meat factories:

Leo Varadkar has accused Sinn Féin of spinning conspiracy theories about the government's handling of meat plants.

It's after a reported outbreak at a plant in Waterford involving a cluster of about 30 cases.

Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty has accused the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar of still not having proper oversight of outbreaks in settings like meat plants:

Maternity:

Women campaigning for partners to be allowed attend maternity hospitals say they’re not hopeful of changes to restrictions any time soon.

The Taoiseach said yesterday he will talk to the acting CMO about women having to attend scans and appointments alone.

At the moment, women are attending maternity appointments and scans alone.

Campaigners say this is particularly difficult for those who receive bad news.

Partners are allowed in for a limited time when a woman is in active labour.

Yesterday the Taoiseach said he will discuss the issue with Dr Ronan Glynn.

Suzanne Kane is 28 weeks pregnant, and says she’s not hopeful after the Taoiseach’s comment:

Today, maternity hospitals say the position on restrictions currently remains the same.
HSE:

The HSE has launched a series of posters for schools to remind children to wash their hands.

There are separate graphics for primary and secondary level and give advice on how to stop the spread of Covid-19.

They are available in both Irish and in English.

India:

India has reported another record jump in daily coronavirus cases, with nearly 98-thousand infections in the last 24 hours.

It's also recorded more than 1-thousand deaths every day for the last two weeks.

India is the world's second-worst affected country, trailing only the US in total cases. 

PUP:

Thousands of people will be hit with a 100 cut to the Pandemic Unemployment Payment from today.

There will now be three rates ranging from 203 euro to 300 - and will be dependent on people's earnings before the Covid-crisis.

More than 200,000 people are still receiving the payment.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett says it's unlikely some sectors will be able to return:

Vaccine:

Donald Trump insists a coronavirus vaccine could be available in a matter of weeks - contradicting a top US health expert, who he's described as "confused".

The President has consistently suggested jabs could be rolled out to Americans from next month.

But the director at the Centers for Disease Control thinks a vaccine might not be available until the middle of next year - something Mr Trump argued was wrong.

Spit Hoods:

Gardai insist they must be allowed to continue to use anti-spit hoods to protect themselves during the pandemic. 

It's after the Policing Authority criticised the continued use of them, especially on children and people with mental health issues. 

Gardai have been spat or coughed at 192 times since April, and anti-spit hoods have been used 104 times. 

But Jim Mulligan, the president of the Garda Representative Association, says they're only used when absolutely necessary:

Green List:

From Monday people will be able to travel to Germany, Poland and Cyprus without any restrictions.

The government is going to update its travel list today with it taking effect from next week. 

Travel will be allowed without restrictions to countries with less than 25 cases per 100,000.

At the moment, that would include Germany, Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Estonia, Iceland, Cyprus and Latvia.

Housing:

There will be about 7,000 fewer homes built this year than had been expected before the pandemic.

That's according to the Banking and Payments Federation, which says 18,000 units will be finished this year, a 14 per cent drop on 2019.

Dublin and Cork are the hardest hit by the slowdown in the construction sector, particularly during the lockdown.

Dr Ali Ugur from the Federation, says this year's estimate was about 25,000:

Covid Budget:

The Budget deficit for 2020 is likely to be 24 to 30 billion euro.

That's according to the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, which has released its pre-Budget statement for 2021.

It says the biggest risks to the Irish economy next year are Covid-19 and a no deal Brexit, and recommends a contingency for both scenarios.

Chairperson of IFAC, Sebastian Barnes, says that although the pandemic has been bad for the economy, there are signs of improvement:

Level 3:

Dublin looks set to be placed on level three restrictions by the weekend.

The National Public Health Emergency Team will meet this morning to make a recommendation to government.

While health officials are worried about the spread of COVID in a number of counties Dublin is by far the worst at the moment. 

This morning the National Public Health Emergency Team will meet to make a recommendation.

It's expected they'll say Dublin should be moved fully up to level three restrictions.

People will be told to work from home unless absolutely necessary. 

This would mean people would not be allowed to leave the county except for essential purposes.

Capacity at weddings and funerals would be limited to 25 and religious services like mass should move online.

Once NPHET makes a recommendation it will be considered by a cross-departmental steering group this evening.

The cabinet sub-committee on COVID has scheduled a meeting tomorrow morning and this is being seen as a precursor to any NPHET recommendations being adopted by the weekend.

A full cabinet meeting would have to sign off on the plans tomorrow afternoon. 

NPHET has yet to consider what advice to give, but with stark warnings last night that 500 to 1000 cases a day could be seen by the middle of October, it is expected further restrictions for Dublin will be installed.