Coronavirus

DrPhilG

Where's the surge in deaths?

muffler

DrPhilG wrote: »

Where's the surge in deaths?

Deaths???

DrPhilG

Yes. A surge in cases isn't particularly relevant. Younger fitter members of the population being confirmed doesn't really matter provided they steer clear of the old and vulnerable.

So a surge in cases is only a worry if there is an accompanying surge in deaths.

There hasn't been, so talk of new lockdowns are daft.

muffler

DrPhilG wrote: »

Yes. A surge in cases isn't particularly relevant. Younger fitter members of the population being confirmed doesn't really matter provided they steer clear of the old and vulnerable.

So a surge in cases is only a worry if there is an accompanying surge in deaths.

There hasn't been, so talk of new lockdowns are daft.

So it doesnt matter one iota how many people are affected by covid? I for one certainly cant agree with those sentiments.

DrPhilG

The more people are affected and recover, the sooner some form of herd immunity will be achieved. A vaccine is most likely a pipe dream (at least any time soon) and lockdown is going to have vastly more devastating effects in the long term due to depression, economic devastation and disruption to education.

Lockdown is not an answer.

NIMAN

There's a balance though, I can see where you are both coming from.

It worrying that cases are rising , and are ten times what they were in June. It shows we are getting slack and too many people think it's life as normal. And of course the more people get it, raises the chances of older or more vulnerable people getting it who may not be so lucky.

And yes I don't think the country can take another lockdown. We need the schools back and the economy functioning as well as it possibly can. If that means the majority getting on with life and taking precautions, and the vulnerable being cautious, then so be it.

DrPhilG

NIMAN wrote: »

If that means the majority getting on with life and taking precautions, and the vulnerable being cautious, then so be it.

Nail on the head.

henke

Two days with no reported cases in Donegal. Hoping things have somewhat stabilised.

NIMAN

Heighway61 wrote: »

More to come. A taxi driver was doing his job during the day and going to soccer and GAA training and the pub in the evenings. Pub and clubs closed now. Everybody at the pub and the clubs traced but taxi customers not possible.

So this never came to pass?

Lot of rumours like this during this pandemic.

Heighway61

NIMAN wrote: »

So this never came to pass?

Lot of rumours like this during this pandemic.

It wasn't a rumour. I had first hand experience of this. Luckily, pub and soccer club returned no positive tests and both reopened. The GAA club is still closed, don't know the situation there regarding testing.

Heighway61

Figures for Donegal not the best in recent days. A person in the HSE was able to tell me that it will be similar numbers or higher in the coming days. Outbreaks in two organisations with large staff numbers.

muffler

Heighway61 wrote: »

Figures for Donegal not the best in recent days. A person in the HSE was able to tell me that it will be similar numbers or higher in the coming days. Outbreaks in two organisations with large staff numbers.

I think we may well have seen that today with the announcement of 13 additional cases.

Heighway61

Lifford Courthouse closed following positve test(s). Factory in Dungloe closed. Buritto Loco in Letterkenny closed with 9 positive tests.

Risteard81

DrPhilG wrote: »

The more people are affected and recover, the sooner some form of herd immunity will be achieved. A vaccine is most likely a pipe dream (at least any time soon) and lockdown is going to have vastly more devastating effects in the long term due to depression, economic devastation and disruption to education.

Lockdown is not an answer.

Not only is it not an answer - it is treasonous. Varadkar, Harris and Martin et al need to be prosecuted and punished in the most severe way for their crimes against the Irish people. They are enemies of Ireland.

And dictating to people to wear stupid gas masks etc. is equally unlawful.

muffler

There is a full forum dedicated to Coronavirus here which would be a more appropriate place for these type of comments. For now can we try to keep the discussion to local issues only. Cheers.

muffler

12 more cares announced today. Thats 25 in the last 2 days.

HeidiHeidi

Any indication of whereabouts the cases were?

muffler

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Any indication of whereabouts the cases were?

This post earlier from Heighway61 might shed some light....possibly

muffler

muffler wrote: »

12 more cares announced today. Thats 25 in the last 2 days.

I'm actually surprised that it isn't more.
The world and its mother seems to have come to Donegal this year - understandably, since we had a relatively long period with no cases.

It couldn't have come at a worse time though. Schools are well known breeding grounds for infections. All we need now is for one of the clusters to spread into the schools, and, IF it spreads through the school, all bets are off with trying to contain it, imho.

Having said that, GPs do appear to be referring a lot of kids for testing, so, fair play, they're trying their best to keep on top of it.
We'll find out, soon enough whether the test results and the tracing systems are fast enough to be effective.
My own Granddaughter was tested (negative, thankfully), and it took 48 hrs for the results to come back.

There have been several children tested at a different school that my grandson attends also - also, all results negative, thankfully.

48 hours is a long time, where there are other children - even allowing for "pods" of children, those infected may have brothers and sisters, either in the same school, or another - and based on how fast your average seasonal flu, or the various other viral infections spread, I think faster testing times are required, personally speaking.

Does anyone know how Donegal is faring for testing capacity?

Heighway61

I'm surprised too there hasn't been more, going by what I'm seeing and reliably hearing.

The schools are a worry, moreso the school bus. No social distancing.

Heighway61

Heighway61 wrote: »

I'm surprised too there hasn't been more, going by what I'm seeing and reliably hearing.

The schools are a worry, moreso the school bus. No social distancing.

Agreed. Having said that, I tend to shop local since corona started, though I do refill the freezer every 3-4 weeks, which requires a trip to either Letterkenny or Dungloe.

The last time I was in Letterkenny, (a couple of weeks ago), there were a lot more people around than usual, quite a few tourists if the car regs. were any indication).

I sat in the car outside one particular shop for around 40 minutes, while my daughter shopped - and to say I was horrified would be the understatement of the year. Masks weren't obligatory at the time - though they were advised. There were very few masks in evidence, and I'd estimate that maybe half of people were sanitising their hands entering the shops, yet out of maybe 100-150 people, only 2 sanitised their hands on the way out.

Worse, several families entered the shop - only 1 family made the children sanitise their hands, despite the parents sanitising their own hands. Personally, if I take the Grandchildren anywhere, I'll make sure their hands are sanitised before my own.

While in a queue in a shop, I had someone come right up and stand at my shoulder - so I stepped forward - and she followed me again. I politely pointed out the clearly marked social distance spaces on the floor - and she seemed amazed that anyone would pay any attention.

I should say Letterkenny isn't the only place I've noticed that. I've noticed it locally as well.
I don't know whether people have just given up, whether they've decided that they'd prefer to believe the conspiracy theories that Covid-19 is no longer a threat, or whether maybe, just maybe, people are less invested in protecting communities that are not their own, though I'm not suggesting that visitors are the only ones not observing the guidelines - but they are noticeably in the majority in the smaller towns.

Whether "local" people are less careful outside their own locality where they're not well known would be interesting to find out....

ednwireland

Deleted User wrote: »

There were very few masks in evidence, and I'd estimate that maybe half of people were sanitising their hands entering the shops, yet out of maybe 100-150 people, only 2 sanitised their hands on the way out.

many shop (aldi/ lidl) dont have sanitisers on the way out !

sometimes you have to cross the flow to use sanitisers on the way out or you have hands full of bags, i have sanitiser in the car.

although its easy to watch and criticize others !

although i actually do think since mandatory masks came in there is less social distancing, but also there are more people going onto shops as groups and doing shopping as a social thing rather than just getting what you need which is what happened in march/april.

but we do have to get back to some sense of normality (whatever form that takes !)

ednwireland

ednwireland wrote: »

many shop (aldi/ lidl) dont have sanitisers on the way out !

sometimes you have to cross the flow to use sanitisers on the way out or you have hands full of bags, i have sanitiser in the car.

although its easy to watch and criticize others !

although i actually do think since mandatory masks came in there is less social distancing, but also there are more people going onto shops as groups and doing shopping as a social thing rather than just getting what you need which is what happened in march/april.

but we do have to get back to some sense of normality (whatever form that takes !)

I have noticed that neither Aldi or Lidl have sanitisers on the way out anymore.
I'm pretty sure they did have at that time, though.

The particular shop I was parked outside did have easily accessible sanitiser, though.

My post was a reaction to what I saw, as opposed to a criticism.
I'll happily admit to being very anxious to avoid Covid-19, since my husband is in the vulnerable group - I carry sanitiser in my pocket, simply because I have never seen anyone sanitise the little chains for the coin slot on trolleys, except myself.

And, I'll freely admit that I didn't think to sanitise them either, in the beginning.

The point is, if people are unknowingly carrying Covid-19, then picking things up and putting them back down in shops - should we not all be sanitising our hands on the was into AND out of shops?

CastorTroy

I think a good way to enforce the wearing of masks is to enforce the wearing of masks.
They have someone at the door a lot of the time cleaning trollies and/or controlling the number of customers so why not stop those without masks from coming in?
Even though I see signs saying masks are mandatory, there are plenty without.

CastorTroy

CastorTroy wrote: »

I think a good way to enforce the wearing of masks is to enforce the wearing of masks.
They have someone at the door a lot of the time cleaning trollies and/or controlling the number of customers so why not stop those without masks from coming in?
Even though I see signs saying masks are mandatory, there are plenty without.

Realistically, I can't see any shop enforcing that.
Shop staff don't have a legal right, afaik, and the Gardaí have other things to be doing.

I think a lot of people just relaxed when there were no cases in Donegal, and others are either sick of the whole thing, have genuine reasons for not wearing masks, or are buying into one of the conspiracy theories that are doing the rounds.

I actually had someone tell me 3 weeks ago that there hadn't been any cases in Letterkenny hospital - because "someone" told her so, and that was what she wanted to believe!

I'm not sure she believed me when I told her that at least 2 nurses that I know of had coronavirus - I got a very belligerent "Were they hospitalised?" as a response!
All based on the fact that someone who had been in the hospital hadn't seen anyone with coronavirus!

With responses like that, I'd be reluctant to believe that full compliance will ever be achieved! No matter what anyone says.

Heighway61

Don't shops have the right to refuse admission? So, member of staff at door, no mask, no entry.

One of the Donegal clusters was as a result of staff conference (aka jolly) in the North, organised by the company. As one of the staff said to me, there was no need to make such a journey at any time, never mind now, that it could have been done by email.

In Letterkenny hospital casualty dept. they made a token effort at social distancing by putting a "do not sit" sign on every second seat. This was about 2ft of distance, not 2m. They part-partitioned the waiting area into Covid and Non-covid but when Non-covid became full people moved over to sit in the Covid area. The vending machine situated in the Covid area was used by people from both sections. (This was a couple of months ago at the height of things, but maybe it has been changed now, haven't been in that area since.)

These are the type of thing we're up against.

Heighway61

Heighway61 wrote: »

Don't shops have the right to refuse admission? So, member of staff at door, no mask, no entry.

One of the Donegal clusters was as a result of staff conference (aka jolly) in the North, organised by the company. As one of the staff said to me, there was no need to make such a journey at any time, never mind now, that it could have been done by email.

In Letterkenny hospital casualty dept. they made a token effort at social distancing by putting a "do not sit" sign on every second seat. This was about 2ft of distance, not 2m. They part-partitioned the waiting area into Covid and Non-covid but when Non-covid became full people moved over to sit in the Covid area. The vending machine situated in the Covid area was used by people from both sections. (This was a couple of months ago at the height of things, but maybe it has been changed now, haven't been in that area since.)

These are the type of thing we're up against.

Aldi and lidl in dungloe used to have a staff member at the door.

I haven't seen them the last twice I was there, though admittedly, I deliberately chose a quiet time to shop. That was for crowd control, not masks, though.

I think Dunnes do it - at least, the last time I was there, there was a queue nearly down to the bottom of the car park.
I took one look at the queue, and went to the old Dunnes, instead.

Realistically, though, smaller shops aren't going to be able to afford to pay a staff member to stand at the door - and even if they do, how is the staff member supposed to know whether or not that person has a medical exemption?

The whole thing is an unholy mess, and, imo, faster testing and tracing, together with investment in more hospital beds and staff is the way to go.

No amount of handwashing and masks is going to stop the spread where it gets into enclosed spaces, whether school or workplace. It will help. It should absolutely be done.
But it's not the solution. Not without faster testing, faster results, and faster tracing.

One, without the other, can't work.

Heighway61

Cluster in Dungloe up to six. Testing is ongoing.

muffler

Probably comes as no surprise in a way but another 20 cases announced for here today.

madalig12

A class in a secondary school closed in ballybofey and a class in a national school in Castlefin the same. Aura have a swim teacher out and more isolating.