Half the staff has also been diagnosed with the virus, leaving Mr McNamara worried about not having enough staff. "We have been hit by a horrific tidal wave. A week before we were due to get our vaccine our first resident test positive for Covid-19, it’s been absolutely horrendous,” he told RTÉ Radio One’s Drivetime. "It’s like you are fighting something you can’t see and it’s just so heartbreaking, it rips your soul clean out of you. "It’s so hard to see these people, they might have had small things wrong, but they weren’t ready to die and to be so cruelly taken away by this horrible disease, it's indescribable.