Encouraging news from Ireland, where the daily growth rate in confirmed cases of coronavirus has halved and the country appears to have avoided an unmitigated epidemic, writes my colleague Rory Carroll in Dublin.
Restrictions on social and commercial life and other measures have had an āenormousā impact, Philip Nolan, the Chair of The Irish Epidemiological Modelling Group, told a media briefing.
āThe measures that the state has imposed and that the public have really complied with very, very strongly are having an enormous effect on the number of actual cases that weāre seeing today.ā
However Nolan warned against complacency and said Covid-19ās growth rate would have to fall to āclose to zeroā for it to be suppressed.
The chief medical officer, Tony Holohan, agreed Ireland was seeing āencouraging signsā in the effort to flatten the curve but said the number of cases and admissions to intensive care units continued to rise, putting hospitals at risk of being swamped. Officials are especially concerned about clusters in nursing homes and hospitals.
Ireland on Monday confirmed 295 new cases, the second highest daily number, bringing the total to 2,910. It recorded eight deaths, bringing the death toll to 54. Northern Ireland has 533 confirmed cases and 22 deaths.
Donāt shoot the messenger. Weāre in as good a shape as can be expected. I was just out for a run there. Even compared to yesterday roads were even quieter.
We are up to date on deaths though, and considering the real numbers of infected are a way, way higher our death toll is good. Especially when it seems half or more can be attributed to nursing home clusters.
So far obviously, very early days to be patting ourselves on the back, it could be off the charts tomorrow.
The only people I have heard who have got a test is that bird from newstalk and Tubs and Claire Byrne. Actually that other bird from Cark who wrote that book at would be on Brendan OāConnor show got one.
There are no testing kits in Ireland. Tests are not happening.
I know a lad that went to the Croke Park testing drive through by appointment, but they had no testing kits. Instead he got a dressing room, stadium and museum tour off two people wearing the full protective gear.
It doesnāt really matter a fuck how many have it in the overall scheme of things. Everyone is supposed to be isolating anyway.
The ICU number is the one to watch, that number canāt lie, and thatās the number thatāll fuck us in the end if we make a balls of it
I suspect a more likely reason for the increase in Twitter activity is the high number of people stuck at home and engaging in social media for the first time.
Itās long been a phenomenon seen by reporters and other commentators that any comment vaguely anti-SF received a barrage of comments underneath. Iād imagine whatās happening is a bit a of a swing the opposite direction and the usual whiners donāt particularly like having their rants questioned.
Doctors and nurses arenāt self isolating and there are approx 500 of them after getting it and are out of the picture. I presume losing that manpower is damaging.
Also, not knowing where the fuck we are in terms of numbers canāt be good either. If there was a big truck coming round the corner in the dark, youād at least like to think it had itās lights on
