Outdoor visits to nursing homes being considered
Visits to nursing homes may return sooner than planned.
The National Public Health Emergency Team says it is aware of the impact the visitation ban is having on resident's mental health.
Outdoor visits while maintaining social distancing is one of the options being considered.
Currently, visitors are not scheduled to return until phase three of the Government's plan to reopen society.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan, says they're trying to be 'creative' with this issue.
He said: “These are people who are at advanced age in life and they are being cut off for extended periods of time from families.
“And then the challenge that that has in maintaining not just their mental health but their physical health and mobility.
“And that has a challenge in terms of their ongoing frailty and the pace at which that happens.
“So we’re concerned about that.”
Yesterday, the CMO insisted the state acted 'significantly' and 'quickly' to tackle the spread of Covid-19
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He said tackling community transmission was key to protecting older people in these facilities:
"I think the response of the State has been significant, a very early response in comparison to other countries, of a public-health-led response, which, in the first case, had to deal with community transmission of this virus.
"There is simply no way of protecting nursing homes, or any institutional setting, if we don't control the spread of this infection in the community in general."
Dr Holohan cautioned
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Nursing Homes Ireland and the Health Information and Quality Authority both sharply criticised the HSE's handling of the virus in nursing homes on Tuesday, with a special Dáil committee on the State finding that nursing homes were not discussed until the 12th meeting of the NPHET, regarding dealing with the outbreak.
Meanwhile, another 103 meat factory staff have tested positive for Covid-19 over the past week.
It brings the total number of cases in these plants to 925.
The HSE says each cluster has been assigned a local outbreak team to manage the situation.
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