Covid 19 Part XXI-27,908 in ROI (1,777 deaths) 6,647 in NI (559 deaths)(22/08)Read OP

At the start, the virus was unprecedented so we acted quickly, doing things that would curb the spread and lower transmission.

Now we have a precedent for taking actions that curb the spread. However those actions upset the wrong people. These are vested interests, voters and the workforce.

Businesses have separate rules, as the clusters detected don't seem to come from them, although I would highlight that between one third and one fifth of cases are community transmission.

Office staff are now meant to go back to working from home.

Weddings are still permitted with fifty people allowed. This is another form of business, hospitality industry.

Outdoor events are only allowed fifteen people (down from 200) even though there is little or nothing to suggest that they account for any transmission.

6 people from 3 households can gather in private homes. Not sure if there's a time limit on that. Generally close contact of 2 metres for 15 minutes is regarded as a risk, although in some settings this is not required.

Pubs and restaurant visits restricted to 105 minutes with social distancing (1m?) between tables.

Meat plants and other factories involved in food production, the main source of virus transmission for the past month, are open with little oversight and there is no firm guidance or research on the safety of groceries, especially on washing down shopping or safe storage and consumption of food that doesn't require cooking (deli meats, etc).

Schools will be reopening in a week's time with thousands of people from different households mixing indoors, close quarters, poor ventilation, inadequate sanitation facilities with children engaging in unpredictable behaviours for 6+ hours. Schools will not necessarily close if there is an outbreak in them and although 25% of the workforce are high risk, only the "extremely high risk" (I heard a figure of 2% quoted at the start) are permitted to give support working from home. No online provision has been made.

Previous CMO left during a very contentious period, under the pretext of family circumstances, when he wanted to take measures to prevent this current outbreak from happening. Current CMO is being slated in leaks from "senior government sources" as personally wanting to impose "draconian" measures.

This will be heralded in the history books as the most frustrating time to have even the remotest grasp of the subtext and agendas at play in public health decisions.

Announcement was meant to be at 3, delayed now supposedly until 7 but leaks are being drip fed all day, putting out feelers to see what the plebs want so they can retract that later. There have been around 300 cases across the previous four days and tomorrow it will be a week since the last biweekly press conference, at a time when there are higher figures than anything we've seen since the previous wave, where after a couple of weeks people started dying in large numbers.

Oh yeah and there are loads of clusters in nursing homes again. Did I forget anything?