Image courtesy of the Irish Times.
This is an update of Ireland’s fight against the Corona virus. More will be available in the days to come.
Taoisearch Leo Varadkar in an address to the Island last night (March 27) announced a strict two- week period of almost a total lockdown in the country’s bid to fight the virus outbreak. People will be restricted in their homes until at least Easter Sunday, April 12. The Garda will be patrolling across the country to enforce these measures.
So far there has been 2,121 cases reported with 419 hospitalized and 59 of that number requiring ICU. There has been 22 deaths with the number of healthcare worker cases numbered at 321.
In his televised address the Taoisearch ordered everyone to remain in their homes except in a limited set of circumstances which include: traveling to essential work, food shopping, medical appointments and brief exercises.
He acknowledged that the Garda has powers to police these restrictions however he hoped that there would be co-operation by the public. There will be a full list of essential workers published as soon as possible.
The numbers in the Republic of Ireland have risen and are expected to rise exponentially in the coming next two to four weeks. The number of deaths will probably rise to around a 1,000 and this requires the drastic measures that he has announced last night.
The intensive care units will be full in the coming day but the health service is working to increase the capacity. Of those that were reported with the virus, nearly one in four is a healthcare worker. There have been 79 clusters of infection that involve groups of people who caught the virus in nursing homes and residential facilities housing vulnerable residents.
The objective with these restrictions put forth by the Government is to slow down the rate at which it increases and to reach a peak (flatten the curve) and then going down which will hopefully return the country to some degree of normality.