Enough people are NOT adhering to very basic transmission-prevention practices, hence the rise in Covid cases.
The Department of Health has reported 3,174 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, here in the Irish Republic. Dr Tony Holohan has also reported that, sadly, 56 deaths have occurred since last Wednesday, bringing the total number of deaths related to Covid-19 here to 5,492.
There were 460 patients currently in our hospitals suffering from the virus, 86 of whom are being treated in ICU’s around the Irish State. One in three beds in our ICUs are currently occupied by people with Covid-19, with the remainder occupied by people with other serious illnesses or trauma.
The CEO of Limerick University Hospital Group, latter serving North Tipperary has stated there has been a drop in the number of patients being treated for Covid-19, since last week,
In Northern Ireland a further 995 cases of coronavirus have been reported, over the same time-frame, down from 1,114 cases recorded yesterday. Sadly 10 more deaths have also been confirmed since yesterday. There were 378 patients with Covid-19 in northern hospitals, down from 381 reported yesterday.
Stormont’s Health Minister Mr Robin Swann has warned that further coronavirus restrictions may be necessary, if pressures on Northern Ireland’s health service continue to mount.
The HSE’s chief clinical officer, Dr Colm Henry has praised healthcare workers, stating they were the reason why there was a very low level of hospital acquired Covid infections within our hospitals currently.
“Where Tipperary leads Ireland follows”, [Thomas Osborne Davis, editor of The Nation.]
Figures released by the HSE, show that every county within the Irish Republic has at least an 80% full vaccination rate. On the other hand, some 95.8% of vaccine eligible people, within Co. Tipperary, have now received at least their first dose; while 94.6% of our residents, over the age of 12, are now fully vaccinated, thus ranking Tipperary in 4th place nationally, on the current Covid-19 vaccination uptake chart.
Abroad
German Health Minister Jens Spahn has stated that his country, somewhat like Ireland over the past few weeks, is experiencing a ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated’, and has called for tougher action to tame a resurgence in Covid cases.
The Dutch government has decided to reimpose measures, including the wearing of face masks, aimed at slowing the latest spike in Covid-19 infections. The use of a “corona pass”, showing proof of a Covid-19 vaccination or recent negative coronavirus test, would be broadened as of November 6th to public places including museums, gyms and outdoor terraces, Prime Minister Mark Rutte has stated.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have unanimously supported broad use of Pfizer’s and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine in children ages 5 to 11, with shots potentially being administrated as soon as today. They maintain that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks.
In New Zealand, authorities have sealed off, since midnight, the city of Auckland using police cordons, as they enforce a lock-down in the region, over fears of an undetected community transmission of Covid-19 in that area.
Please do continue to keep yourself and your family safe by regularly washing your hands and wearing a mask when appropriate.
Unacceptable delays and the pace at which essential improvements in waste water treatment are being delivered is too slow, says EPA.
34 towns and villages release raw sewage into the environment every day, and a third of these will continue to do so after 2024.
12 large towns and cities did not meet waste water treatment standards set to protect our environment. These areas generate half of Ireland’s waste water.
Ireland will need substantial and sustained investment to bring public waste water treatment up to standard.
The EPA report on Urban Waste Water Treatment in 2020, released today, shows that the pace at which essential improvements in waste water treatment are being delivered is too slow.
Irish Water is making progress in resolving environmental issues and the number of priority areas has reduced from 148 to 97 over the past four years. However, there is still a long way to go to bring all deficient treatment systems up to standard.
There have been further delays in providing treatment for many of the 34 towns and villages discharging raw sewage, and as a result over one third of these areas will not receive treatment until after 2024.
River Suir, Thurles, Co. Tipperary
Investment in waste water infrastructure is bringing environmental benefits to some areas. The number of large towns and cities failing to meet EU treatment standards is down from 28 in 2017 to 12 in 2020. However, the final deadline for all large urban areas to meet these treatment standards was 2005.
Commenting on the report, Dr Tom Ryan, Director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Enforcement said: “It is unacceptable that 15 years after the final deadline to comply, half of Ireland’s urban waste water is still not treated to the basic EU standards. There are repeated delays in providing proper treatment at many areas, and this continues to put our environment and people’s health at risk. It is clear that Ireland will still need substantial investment over many years to bring our public waste water treatment plants and public sewers up to standard. Irish Water must deliver the essential infrastructure in as timely a manner as possible and resolve the underlying causes for the delays in upgrading treatment systems.”
The EPA report identifies the priority areas where improvements are most urgently needed and will deliver the greatest environmental benefits.
Mr Noel Byrne, EPA Programme Manager said: “While we are seeing progress at some areas, it is very concerning that Irish Water still has no clear action plans setting out when and how it will improve treatment at many of the priority areas where waste water is threatening the quality of our rivers and coastal waters. It is essential that Irish Water improves treatment to resolve the environmental issues highlighted by the EPA and provides clear, site specific action plans and time frames to carry out this work.”
The report contains key actions recommended for Irish Water as follows:
Direct resources to the priority areas and ensure there is a clear plan and time frame to resolve the environmental issues at each area.
Resolve the underlying causes for delays in upgrading treatment systems and deliver upgrade works in as timely a manner as possible.
Complete the impact assessments for shellfish waters and address the information shortfalls on the condition and performance of collecting systems.
The Department of Health has this evening confirmed 3,726 new cases of Covid-19, within the past 24 hours, here within the Irish republic.
The number of people suffering with the virus in hospital stands at 493 and of these patients 90 are confined to intensive care units (ICUs) across the country.
The Minister for Health Mr Stephen Donnelly has informed the Dáil that we have to be concerned that matters relating to Covid-19 will further deteriorate. He was proposing to extend emergency legislation on existing enforcement powers and fixed penalty notices in relation to the wearing of face masks and Covid passes; the laws relating to which are due to expire on November 9th next.
Mr Donnelly is now proposing to extend these regulations for another three months to end on February 9th; in light of the uncertainty of the trajectory of the current pandemic. Dáil Éireann will vote on this proposal tomorrow night. Sadly, Sinn Féin’s Health Spokesperson Mr David Cullinane(Him of ‘Up the Ra’ embarrassment), has stated that his party will oppose this proposed extension “in principle”. Earlier, An Taoiseach Mr Micheál Martin had stated that there were no guarantees that Covid-19 restrictions would not be re-introduced.
In Northern Ireland, a further 1,114 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed, up from 948 cases recorded yesterday.
Today there were 381 patients with Covid-19 in hospitals in Northern Ireland, up from 326 on Monday.
There are currently 36 of these Covid patients in northern intensive care units, the same number as reported yesterday.
Meanwhile, NewsGuard reports that misinformation, conspiracy theories and false claims regarding the Covid-19 virus and Covid vaccines, are been allowed to spread on more than a dozen Facebook and Instagram accounts; with same having gained some 370,000 followers over the past 12 months. This confirms statements recently made by Facebook whistle-blowers.
Please do continue to keep yourself and your family safe by regularly washing your hands and wearing a mask when appropriate.
Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) encourages staff and students to ‘Speak Out’ at launch of its online violence and harassment reporting tool.
The Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest (TUS) has launched its anonymous violence and harassment reporting tool – Speak Out – today Monday (November 1, 2021.)
Speak Out is an online, anonymous reporting platform for incidents of bullying, cyberbullying, harassment, discrimination, hate crime, coercive behaviour/control, stalking, assault, sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape.
The newly launched tool is part of a national approach to tackling these issues by raising awareness, providing support and providing a means of recording instances.
Launching Speak Out across all six TUS campuses, President of TUS Professor Mr Vincent Cunnane said, “Speak out will allow us, as TUS, to understand staff and student experiences of harassment and violence. It will be crucial in assisting us in making evidence-based policy decisions in this very important area. A key role of Speak Out is to help raise awareness of supports available to students and staff, and to encourage them to seek help if needed. It is a further step in delivering on our commitments within the Framework for Consent in Higher Education Institutions and to providing a safe, respectful and supportive culture across all our campuses”.
Ms Noreen Keane, Head of Student Counselling TUS Midwest Campuses said, “This tool provides an anonymous trauma informed platform for survivors to report incidents of harassment, sexual violence, bullying and coercive behaviour. It is the starting point as initially many are hesitant to formerly report an incident. This tool removes that barrier by virtue of its anonymity and encourages both students and staff to speak out and have their experience validated.”
Ms Treasa Fox, Head of Student Counselling Midlands Campus added, “The Speak Out launch today marks a culture shift on TUS campuses. From today, students and staff can make an anonymous report of any experiences of bullying, cyberbullying, sexual harassment, assault, or rape in a safe way. We in student counselling services have long recognised that an important first step in healing from trauma is to say what has happened to you in a safe way.”
President of TUS Students Union Ms Áine Daly said, “This is a platform that students can trust, that gives them the opportunity to have their voices heard anonymously and seek the support they need. It will also contribute to making our tomorrow better with data collection for statistics, with the hope in the future these tools won’t have to exist, and that we can be kind and respectful of one another.”
The Speak Out project, led by the Psychological Counsellors in Higher Education Ireland (PCHEI) and funded by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, is being rolled out across 18 higher education institutions throughout this academic year.
The online tool went live for all six TUS campuses today, through their website and staff and student portals.View HERE.
Speak Out is a trauma informed tool which will provide users with support services relevant to their experience. The anonymous data collected through this tool will also be used to inform national policy and targeted educational initiatives.
This project, has been funded by the HEA Centre of Excellence for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, and underpins an ethos of cross institutional collaboration in response to such incidences within higher education institutions.
The Department of Health has confirmed 2,855 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, here in the Rpublic of Ireland.
There are 515 people in our hospitals who have tested positive for the virus, an increase of 15 since yesterday. Of these virus patients, 91 are in intensive care units.
Over the past week some 15,000 people have come forward to a vaccination centre via online appointments or walk-in vaccine centres. Meanwhile, the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) which met today to discuss booster vaccines for healthcare workers, has made, as yet, no decision. This is despite the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) calling on the Government to include healthcare workers in a booster vaccination programme.
The Department of Health in Northern Ireland has confirmed a further 948 new infections and, sadly, 10 Covid-related deaths over the same 24 hour period.
Northern Ireland may need to re-introduce mass walk-in vaccination centres to speed up the delivery of the Covid booster jab. Northern Ireland has the lowest rollout rate of the Covid booster jab in the UK.
Please do continue to keep yourself and your family safe by regularly washing your hands and wearing a mask when appropriate.
UPDATE:
Booster Covid-19 vaccinations have been authorised for healthcare workers. Health Minister Mr Stephen Donnelly has tweeted news of this development this evening, saying that the doses will start to be administered from this weekend.
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