Ireland will not consider re-opening its hospitality sector before mid-summer due to the high level of COVID-19 infections in the country, Prime Minister Micheál Martin said on Saturday. Bars, restaurants, cafes and hotels have been closed in Ireland for much of the past 12 months, with the latest national lockdown in place since late December. The country has the 16th highest rate of COVID-19 infections of the 30 countries monitored by the European Centre for Disease Control.
The first case of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N8 in wild birds was confirmed in Co Limerick on 10 November 2020.
Since then, Ireland has confirmed HPAI in 30 wild birds, species including whooper swans, mute swans, barnacle goose, curlew, cormorant, knots and peregrine falcons.
The cases have been confirmed in the counties of Cavan, Cork, Donegal, Galway, Kildare, Limerick, Louth, Mayo, Monaghan, Wexford and Wicklow.
The Monaghan cases were detected in the Ballybay area and included three mute swans and most recently a cormorant, confirmed on 23 December 2020.
Different strain
A different subtype of bird flu, HPAI H5N3 was confirmed in two knot birds which had been found on Clogherhead, Co Louth.
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Lab technicians process antigen tests at the RocDoc facility at Dublin Airport which has been established for hauliers bound for France via Dublin Port. Photograph: Laura Hutton
If there is one thing that people with differing views on Covid-19 lockdowns agree on, it is the importance of effective, rapid testing to identify infections.
Increasingly, this is not just about the number of tests you can do, but also the type of tests involved.