Covid 19 Part XXV-44,159 ROI (1,830 deaths) 21,898 NI (598 deaths) (13/10) Read OP

ongarite wrote: »

Meath cases are due to GAA county final in Navan 2 weeks ago.
Very large outbreak in Ratoath within player group and families.

niallo27 wrote: »

The problem is that the people having the parties have little to no risk of getting sick from this virus, it won't affect them or their friends so its hard for them to just stop living for 1 to 2 years. Actually its impossible to expect them to do it.

Seems these 2 posts from earlier sum up the situation very succinctly. They can't both be true, so somewhere there has to be much clearer guidance and appropriate controls and enforcement if this virus is going to be brought back under control.

Level 3 seems to be having some success in Dublin, though the time between Dublin being locked and the rest of the country being put on level 3 allowed too many people to head out to places like Ashbourne to the still open pubs here, so it wasn't level 3 as intended, in typical Irish fashion, it was sort of level 3.

For me, Level 3 with some modifications seems appropriate, but it won't be popular.

Some outlets (betting shops is the sort of thing I mean) we can manage without for a while, and if there's data to support other high risk environments, they too need to be closed for a while. Not sure that there is data that's sufficiently accurate unfortunately. The rest of the economy needs to operate if at all possible.

The main thing is that EVERYONE has to get to grips with the clear message that social contacts have to be MINIMISED for at least 3 weeks, and bluntly, that means some form of evening and night curfew to limit things like house parties, and teens congregating outside outlets that have WiFi systems they can use.

Level 4 or 5 is not going to help too much, too many people at home with nothing to do is only going to encourage more house parties and the like, and the cost to the economy is just too high.

There needs to be a clear message supported by legislation that house parties are not acceptable until Covid is either eliminated or controlled by some other means. The guidance of one other family, or 6 people needs to be seen as the limit, and not a target that can be ignored because we know them all.

The students and second level schools need to be told that they have to get the message out to all that congregating in groups outside of the school environment is NOT a good idea.

The county lockdown needs to be made clearer, it's there to discourage gatherings over a wider area, plain and simple.

And yes, there needs to be some serious education about masks, where and how to use them, there are still too many people not using them, or not using them correctly, which is another factor in spreading.

Another aspect, given the strange times we're living in, how about suggesting that ALL retail outlets should close for at least 3 full days over Christmas, so that everyone can have some time to enjoy whatever aspects of Christmas are not destroyed by Covid. There is also the issue of Christmas sales, the last thing we need is a rugby scrum outside the relevant stores to get the "must have" bargains, as with the way things are at the moment, the full price of that bargain might well be a lot less than acceptable.