{"id":13527,"date":"2020-03-12T12:53:54","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T16:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=13527"},"modified":"2020-03-15T12:56:52","modified_gmt":"2020-03-15T16:56:52","slug":"radical-measures-introduced-in-ireland-to-fight-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=13527","title":{"rendered":"Radical Measures Introduced in Ireland to Fight Coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/2.51299117.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13528\" srcset=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/2.51299117.jpg 600w, https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/2.51299117-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/>Radical measures announced by the Government to curtail the spread of coronavirus were prompted by advice in a letter from health experts.<\/p>\n<p>Minister for Health Simon Harris said he received the letter on Thursday from the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).<\/p>\n<p>The Government received recommendations to move to the delay phase following a significant increase in coronavirus cases over recent days.<\/p>\n<p>The letter of advice came following a NPHET meeting on Wednesday night to review the latest evidence of the spread of Covid-19.<\/p>\n<p>Health officials said there are now clusters of virus cases in hospitals, with some in intensive care and a number arising from community transmission.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, NPHET said: \u201cNew advice provided by European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) yesterday, highlighting that the detection of Covid-19 cases and deaths outside of known chains of transmission is a strong signal that social distancing should be considered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ECDC also recommended that the measures should be taken early and should be decisive, rapid, coordinated and comprehensive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Government acted on the advice by introducing a number of measures in a bid to prevent the spread of coronavirus.<\/p>\n<p>These include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Individuals who have symptoms should self-isolate for a period of 14 days.<\/li>\n<li>Individuals should reduce discretionary social contacts as much as possible.<\/li>\n<li>Elderly and\/or medically vulnerable people should reduce as much as possible contacts outside home.<\/li>\n<li>There should be no mass gatherings involving more than 100 people if located indoors, or involving more than 500 people if located outdoors.<\/li>\n<li>Closure of museums, galleries and tourism sites.<\/li>\n<li>Closure to students of schools, creches, other childcare facilities and higher education institutions.<\/li>\n<li>Reduction of workplace contacts, and implementation of remote working practices and teleconferencing where possible and not to travel for meetings. Work time and break times should be staggered, where possible.<\/li>\n<li>Restriction of visiting at hospitals, long-term care settings, mental health facilities, prisons, and spacing measures in homeless shelters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>NPHET recommends the measures should be in place until Sunday March 29.<\/p>\n<p>Its statement added: \u201cThe impact of these measures will be under continuous review.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health, said: \u201cThe National Public Health Emergency Team and the health sector in its entirety has been preparing for the effects of Covid-19 on our population.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow we need citizens to follow these new measures and help us protect the most vulnerable in our society, help our health service treat this virus effectively and ultimately keep each other as healthy as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-13527\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=13527&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-13527\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=13527&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-google-plus-1\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-google-13527\" class=\"share-google-plus-1 sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=13527&amp;share=google-plus-1\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Google+\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=13527\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to print (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Radical measures announced by the Government to curtail the spread of coronavirus were prompted by advice in a letter from health experts. Minister for Health Simon Harris said he received the letter on Thursday from the National Public Health Emergency&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Share this:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-13527\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=13527&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-13527\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=13527&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-google-plus-1\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"sharing-google-13527\" class=\"share-google-plus-1 sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=13527&amp;share=google-plus-1\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Google+\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon no-text\" href=\"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=13527\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span><\/span><span class=\"sharing-screen-reader-text\">Click to print (Opens in new window)<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13528,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13527"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13529,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13527\/revisions\/13529"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}