Coronavirus: 3,498 New Cases; 50 Deaths Reported In Ireland

National news on Friday 15th January 2021.

Latest Figures:

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 50 additional deaths related to COVID-19.

All of these 50 deaths occurred in January 2021. The median age of those who died was 82 years, and the age range was 45-96 years. There was no newly reported death in healthcare workers. There was no newly reported death in a young person under the age of 30.

There has been a total of 2,536 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight, Thursday 14th January, the HPSC has been notified of 3,498 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 166,548 * confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.

Of the cases notified today:

1,576 are men / 1,906 are women

54% are under 45 years of age

The median age is 42 years old

1,182 are in Dublin, 421 in Cork, 258 in Limerick, 187 in Galway, 164 in Waterford, and the remaining 1,286 cases are spread across all other counties.

As of 2pm today, 1,850 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised of which184 are in ICU. 118 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said: "New variants of COVID-19 have recently been identified in Brazil, and in travellers to Japan from Brazil. There is no evidence of these variants in Ireland.”

"Anyone who has travelled from Brazil in the last 14 days is advised to self-isolate for 14 days, from the date of arrival, and identify themselves, through a GP, for testing as soon as possible.”

“It is essential that anyone arriving from Brazil self-isolate for 14 days from the date of arrival before entering/re-entering the workplace. We are particularly appealing to employers to enable their employees to protect each other by staying at home for the full 14 days.”

"Further risk assessment of the new variants is expected from the ECDC in the coming week. We must all continue to adhere to every element of the public health advice. This remains our best defence against COVID-19.”

Dr Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said: “We have worked exceptionally hard in recent weeks to reduce our close contacts. At the end of December, the number of close contacts per confirmed case peaked at approximately 6. That has now dropped to 2.3 contacts. This enormous effort is the reason we are seeing case numbers beginning to fall.”

“We know that it is extremely difficult to keep our close contacts to a minimum, particularly over an extended period of time. But this is the main way we can protect ourselves and our loved ones from COVID-19. Again today, we are reporting the highest number of people with COVID-19 to date in our hospitals. We must stay home to protect ourselves and each other.”

The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community. As of yesterday, the dashboard includes information on Total Vaccines Administered (1st Dose).

Today’s cases, 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population and new cases in last 14 days (as of midnight 14 January 2021) (incidence rate based on Census 2016 county population)

Re-opening schools:

The Education Minister says the reopening of schools in February will depend on the general public's behavior over the coming weeks.

Norma Foley says considerable planning has gone into running this year's Leaving Cert, with papers being adjusted to give students more choice. 

It comes as some students have expressed concern about how much school they've missed between this year and last.

Minister Norma Foley says the public needs to adhere to guidelines in order to allow students to go back to school:

Interesting Google searches:

The number of times Google was asked "are takeaways still open" was up 300 per cent last week. 

Google trends reveal that Irish people searched "reasons to travel during lockdown" 950 per cent more than the week before.

Trending questions on the search engine  include "how to avoid the new covid variant" and "why is the new variant more transmissible?"
 

Leaving Cert:

Sinn Féin's calling for contingency plans to be urgently put in place in case the leaving cert exams can't go ahead.

There are fears these students won't have in-person classes until after St Patrick's Day. 

But the government says it still intends to have full, written exams for junior and leaving cert pupils in June. 

Sinn Féin's education spokesman, Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire, says that may not be possible if the current Covid-19 trends continue:

pic.twitter.com/Qfd1N0Tj2N

— Norma Foley T.D (@NormaFoleyTD1) January 14, 2021

Remote working:

Irish employees will have a legal right to ask to work remotely by September of this year.

It's one of the targets outlined in the state's first National Remote Work Strategy, which is published by the Tánaiste this morning. 

Leo Varadkar also says he wants to fast-track the National Broadband Plan by up to two years. 

The Enterprise Minister says he wants as many people as possible to be able to work remotely, when the Covid-19 pandemic's over:

Minorities:

People from ethnic minority groups should be considered clinically extremely vulnerable when it comes to Covid-19. 

That's according to a new study by UK and US universities, which found racism to be a "root cause" of ill health in general and increased mortality rates from Covid-19.

They say where risk of exposure to the virus is high, members of ethnic minority groups should be supported into non-customer-facing roles.

Carers:

Home and Community Care Ireland is meeting the Health Minister today to try and protect carers and older people during the pandemic.

It's asking NPHET to review its advice that close contacts self-isolate instead of being tested, as it claims this isn't suitable for the home care sector. 

Almost 500 carers who look after elderly and vulnerable people in their homes are self-isolating as they may be close contacts.

HCCI Chief Executive, Joseph Musgrave is seeking a number of steps from Minister Stephen Donnelly today:

Tax:

Thousands of workers who have received the Pandemic Unemployment Payment or the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme are set to face tax bills today

The payments were not taxed in real-time and instead are liable to income tax and USC at the end of the year.

Employees will be given the option to pay partially or in-full.

Catching up. 2nd in EU now for vaccines. 40k this week. Will ramp up to c.50k next week. Thank you to all our vaccinators and @HSELive https://t.co/3NSnqyYDuq

— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) January 14, 2021

Airport testing:

Roc Doc is starting its covid-19 antigen testing at Dublin Airport today.

The drive-through testing facility is located at the Express Green Long-Term Car Park.

It's encouraging passengers to arrive around 3 hours before their flight to get their swab taken.

RocDoc Chief Executive, David Rock has this advice:

Mayo:

One in every 17 people in Belmullet local electoral area in Co Mayo tested positive for Covid-19 in the space of two weeks. 

The region had by far the highest 14-day incidence rate in the country between December 29th and this Monday. 

It had a rate of 6,032 per 100,000 people - over four times the national average of 1,410.

Galway GP Martin Daly says there needs to be an investigation as to why it happened:

Special schools:

A meeting is taking place this morning to finalise plans for special needs education to resume next Thursday. 

Department of Education officials will update disability, autism and carers' organisations after an a