Failure to recognise atypical symptoms led to Covid-19 spread in nursing homes

Professor Cillian Twomey who sits on the Covid-19 Nursing Homes Expert Panel and chair of the panel Professor Cecily Kelleher. Photo: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

A failure to recognise atypical Covid-19 symptoms in the elderly was a contributing factor in the virus spreading so rapidly across nursing homes in Ireland, the special committee on Covid-19 has heard.

The Covid-19 Nursing Homes Expert Panel has published its final report, with the chair Professor Cecily Kelleher, saying in her opening statement that asymptomatic spread and atypical presentation in older people was not understood early in the pandemic.