220 isolation beds for homeless in Dublin as nine test positive for Covid-19

110 apartments have been secured and 110 individual hotel rooms.
220 isolation beds for homeless in Dublin as nine test positive for Covid-19
Nine homeless people have been confirmed to have Covid-19 to date in Dublin. File picture.

- additional reporting from Vivienne Clarke

220 isolation beds have been secured in Dublin to help homeless people during the coronavirus crisis.

Nine homeless people have been confirmed to have Covid-19 to date in the capital, with 51 people self-isolating at present.

110 apartments have been secured and 110 individual hotel rooms.

This is on top of more than 500 beds already made available.

Pat Doyle from the Peter McVerry Trust said the extra beds and rooms are badly needed.

He said: "We have 51 people isolating, we have nine confirmed cases, we have about another 10 people moving today into isolation."

"What we hope to do by Monday then is to pick up everybody else who needs to cocoon, tested or not," he said. "And get them into their own individual ensuite room."

"So that we can give them the best chance."

Mr Doyle told Newstalk Breakfast: “We have 660 beds in the Greater Dublin Area in partnership with the DRHE. We immediately in our preparations targeted about 160 individuals who we felt had complex health issues.

“If you've been on the street for 15 years, maybe your health hasn't been the priority.

“A lot of homeless people would have complex health issues - we'd have a lot of people that would have had addiction issues over the years and their health would have been affected by that.

“We've been preparing well - I suppose we've had an extra week or two, it's moved slower nationally than we expected. And it's moved slower within our population.

“The last of our hotel beds will come on on Monday, so what we hope to do by Monday then is pick up everybody else that needs to cocoon - tested or not - and get them into their own individual en-suite room so that we can give them the best chance.”

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