Covid-19 outbreak at local schools sees training suspended for youth squads at Cork GAA club
Clonakilty GAA Clubi also a vaccination centre. File picture: Andy Gibson.
A Covid-19 outbreak in two local schools has seen training suspended for a number of youth squads at a Cork GAA club as a safety precaution.
Clonakilty GAA has cancelled training for all age groups up to Under-14s after a number of Covid-19 cases were recorded in local schools.
Tests are ongoing and training will be cancelled for at least the next week with a review of the situation expected to take place then.
A spokesperson for the club confirmed the cancellation and said:
“We've suspended training for under 14's down for the next week and we will just keep it under review, depending on the results of tests which are being carried out and have been carried out in the last day or two because there has been an outbreak in two local schools.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Public Health Mid-West has said that there are "serious concerns" over a “rapid increase” in Covid-19 cases in Limerick.
The Department said the rise of cases in Limerick is connected to social gatherings in the past two weeks.
Provisional data shows that there were 11 new cases of Covid-19 in Limerick on Sunday, 20 on Monday, 22 on Tuesday, 38 on Wednesday and 46 new cases on Thursday.
According to public health data, activities contributing to this rise include house parties, indoor gatherings and social activities surrounding last week's Eid celebrations.
They are also concerned about onward transmission from weekend social events into workplaces.
Dr Mai Mannix, Director of Public Health Mid-West, said: “We have not seen this level of infection in the community since early March, which is a very worrying trend.
Public Health Mid-West said that even though the HSE cyberattack has caused disruption, the team “remains in a strong position to identify these behavioural trends and swiftly manage new outbreaks”.
A statement said that the priority is to identify new cases, isolate them, and undertake contact tracing.
“The faster this happens, the faster we can control the spread of Covid-19,” it added.
“If you have symptoms or are concerned that you have been exposed to possible infection, please make attempts to arrange a PCR test at the Limerick Covid Test Centre.”
Elsewhere, HSE chief Paul Reid has said that around 45% of adults in Ireland have had one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Our focus on protecting the public through vaccination remains unrelenting. Without the impacted data from GPs, we've likely well over 2.3M vaccines administered. Approx. 45% of adult population had a 1st Dose and over 15% fully vaccinated. A good lft for our teams too. @HSELive
— Paul Reid (@paulreiddublin) May 22, 2021
He said that it is likely that more than 2.3 million doses have been administered.
"Our focus on protecting the public through vaccination remains unrelenting," Mr Reid said on Twitter.
"Without the impacted data from GPs, we've likely well over 2.3m vaccines administered.
"Approx. 45% of adult population had a 1st Dose and over 15% fully vaccinated. A good lift for our teams too."
It comes as the Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said on Friday that the Indian variant was like a “dark cloud on the horizon”.
The Chief Executive of BioNTech, who has developed a vaccine with Pfizer, said their jab is likely to be effective against the variant, with it possible that it could be upwards of 80% effective.
As reported by Reuters, the company said in a statement Chief Executive Ugur Sahin felt encouraged by recent findings in a scientific paper based on blood analysis of vaccinated individuals, which showed that the antibodies elicited by the vaccine were able to neutralise the Indian variant.
“So far we've had the chance to test our vaccine against more than 30 variants of the virus. It has proven effective against mutations so far," Sahin said earlier, speaking on Turkish television.
"We expect (our vaccine) to protect against infections by 70% to 75%," he said on TV, in what the company later said was in reference to the South African variant and not directly to the Indian variant.
To date, 72 cases of this variant of concern — B1617.2 — have been identified, up from 59 earlier this week and 41 last week.
On Friday, a 524 cases of Covid-19 in total were reported to Nphet.
Cillian De Gascun, from the National Virus Reference Laboratory, said it was important to ensure the variant did not get “out of control”.
The prevalence of the B1617.2 in Ireland is “increasing on a weekly basis” but the levels are too low to identify a growth rate, he added.
The majority of these cases are from before India was added to the mandatory hotel quarantine list, he said, adding it is “safe to assume” the Indian variant is present in the community.
This strain is estimated to be up to 50% more transmissible than B117, also known as the UK variant, which is between 40% and 90% more transmissible than the original Wuhan strain.
Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan yesterday expressed concern about the number of cases of the variant that had been detected in the State.
He referred to data from Public Health England, due to be published today, which is expected to show a decrease in the effectiveness of the vaccine in prevention of transmission of this variant, particularly after the first dose.
“In broad terms, you could characterise the virus here at the moment as, for the most part, the sky is blue but there is a black cloud on the horizon which is the Indian variant,” he said.
He said this variant is "the most concerning one" since the emergence of the B117 variant, first detected in the UK, at the turn of the year.
Dr Holohan said he had to “raise the flag” that the presence of this variant could “get in the way” of the current trajectory of the virus, but that it did not necessarily mean the reopening of society had to slow down.
Meanwhile, Philip Nolan, chairman of the Irish Epidemiological Advisory Group, said there are “severe limitations” to the volume and detail of data over the past week as a result of the “very problematic” hacking of HSE systems.
However, he said the team had obtained “very reliable” data from laboratories on the key indicators of the disease to get a “very clear sense” of the current epidemiology.
The seven-day moving average is 432 cases per day, and the 14-day incidence stands at 124 cases per 100,000 population.
The five day average of 443 cases is “slightly elevated”, Mr Nolan said, however he said this could be a result of members of the public delaying presenting for tests late last week and early this week as a result of the cyberattack on the HSE system.
