The Covid-19 situation in Limerick schools is at the "worst level it has ever been", according to the City and County Council.
Ireland’s Covid situation continues to deteriorate, with normal practice across all sectors in full swing since the end of February.
Cases are on the rise, and so, the natural knock-on effect means hospitalisations are also continuing to grow.
As of 8am on Wednesday, 1,610 Covid-19 patients were hospitalised, of whom 49 were in ICU.
With patient numbers growing, pressure is mounting on the health service which, like all other sectors, is also coping with high volumes of staff contracting the virus.
READ MORE: Taoiseach Micheal Martin says mandatory mask wearing would not change current Covid situation
Over the past few weeks, a number of hospitals had to shut their doors to visitors and ask the public to seek care elsewhere while they dealt with internal outbreaks in their wards.
While some arrive to seek care after a positive Covid test, others are now contracting the virus while in hospital for other procedures and treatment.
Meanwhile, a local teacher, Laura Quirke, told Limerick Leader today that school case numbers are higher now than they were at any other point in the Pandemic.
She said: “It is becoming a major issue for schools. It was not like this when we had masks and we are also seeing people who had Covid before becoming re-infected.
“We can no longer decide to just send one group home, and children with special education needs are missing out on their time because their teachers have been re-deployed to cover mainstream teacher absences.”
She said it’s becoming more and more difficult to give the children the one-to-one care they need during school hours and said: “it is at the worst it has been over the last two years.
“It just keeps going round and round. It is impossible to get cover. We have every level of trainee teacher from first year to fourth year coming in to help as well.”
Earlier today, Paul Reid called for the public to begin wearing masks again to slow the spread of the current wave - which is being fuelled by the new and highly contagious Omicron variant, BA.2.
Taking to Twitter, he wrote: “The impacts of the current Covid wave will continue to impact our hospitals and healthcare significantly through April.
“Please wear a mask in the appropriate settings and come forward for your booster vaccine once due.
“All actions can help protect and mitigate further impacts.”
Despite this, the Taoiseach has said he does not believe that mandatory mask rules for indoor settings would change the current Covid-19 situation.
Speaking on RTÉ's Claire Byrne this morning, Micheál Martin said he is regularly in touch with the Chief Medical Officer, and that the Government will continue to be guided by public health advice.
He said that although the BA.2 variant is highly transmissible, it does not appear to be affecting people’s health in the extreme ways earlier variants did.
Mr Martin said he is aware of the pressure being placed on the health system at this time, but that Ireland is in a different phase of the pandemic now.
"Essentially, the current wave does not justify the return of economic restrictions, or the restrictions that we had in earlier phases of Covid-19,” he said.
"That's the fundamental advice in public health.”
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