Calls for more over-60s supports amid Covid-19 fears

A leading elderly rights campaigner has called for more targeted supports to help vulnerable older people through the coronavirus crisis.

Paddy O’Brien, who organises the Over 60s in Cork, Ireland’s largest talent competition for people over 60, before he goes ahead tomorrow with one of its many local heats in Na Piarsaigh GAA club on the city’s northside.

He said anxiety levels in the elderly have rocketed with reports of the first death of a Covid 19 patient in Ireland, and against the backdrop of panic buying and talk of lockdowns.

“If I thought there was any risk or danger, I’d cancel (the Over 60s heat). But this does not classify as a mass public gathering according to public health guidance and until the HSE says otherwise, it’’s business as usual, but with added precautions.

“People are anxious. This event will ease the anxiety for a few hours. I started the Over 60s in 1977 to combat loneliness. For some, it’s the only social outlet they have."

But Mr O’Brien said while Ireland’s population is ageing, the services for that age group have not kept pace. He urged the HSE to increase the number of home help workers and the hours they have and urged public health experts, who are directing people towards online sources of information, to remember that not everyone is comfortable using computers.

“Some elderly people I deal with can barely use a mouse,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Cork Lifelong Learning Festival, scheduled to run from March 29 to April 5, has been cancelled.

Event coordinator, Siubhán McCarthy said the welfare of attendees, hosts and participants was their primary concern.

Separately, the HSE said it’s too early to comment publicly on its plans for its vacant buildings as part of its coronavirus crisis response.

Work is continuing at St Mary’s healthcare campus in Gurranabraher on a possible isolation ward while a former cancer support house near UCC is being adapted for use as a “sterile accommodation hub” for frontline healthcare workers.

A spokesperson for the HSE said: “We will communicate with the public as and when various plans are finalised, but it would be confusing and unhelpful to say any more until these plans are confirmed.

“We are not in a position to confirm at this stage about specific plans for any building, but we would like to reassure the public that no building will be used for any purpose which isn’t suitable for either the building or the environment."

Coronavirus in brief

• A female patient with an underlying illness who contracted Covid-19

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  has died in the east of the country
• The 10 new Covid-19 cases confirmed in Ireland last night brought the total up to 34 cases
• There are now 50 cases on the island of Ireland - 34 here, 16 in the North
• Schools told

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  not to close unless instructed by Department
• A teacher in Cork secondary school is in

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  self-isolation after coming in close contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19
• Republic of Ireland's Euro 2020 play-off

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  to be played behind closed doors. The Women's qualifier

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  in Montenegro also closed to the public
• Ryanair and Aer Lingus cancel flights to Italy