Galway Bay FM Newsroom – Suicide and self-harm prevention charity Pieta has announced it is to recruit additional therapists for its services in Galway and the wider western region.

Pieta currently employs more than 200 qualified therapists and support staff across 20 locations nationwide.

A recruitment drive is now underway to hire additional therapists at its centres in the city, Tuam and Ballina.

Pieta says it’s seen a 30 percent increase in calls and texts overall, which shows that its services are needed now more than ever.

Galway Bay FM Newsroom – The Department of Health has been notified of 1,352 cases of Covid-19 this afternoon.

The figure is a increase of 254 on yesterday’s figure.

There are currently 177 Covid-19 patients in hospital – of which 27 are in ICU.

Meanwhile, over 70 per cent of the Irish adult population is now fully vaccinated.

18,000 people have been vaccinated so far this weekend in 26 walk-in vaccination centres across the country.

Galway Bay FM Newsroom – Saolta has announced changes to visiting times at UHG and Merlin Park Hospital.

From Tuesday, both hospitals will facilitate one visitor per patient each day between 6pm and 8pm.

Previously, there was a one-hour visiting time in the afternoon and another one-hour visiting period in the evening.

However, the afternoon visiting time resulted in long queues, while there was also heavy footfall of people attending outpatient and other clinics.

Saolta says in order to manage the volume of people and maintain social distancing, it is changing to the new two-hour visiting time from Tuesday.

Visits must be arranged by family members or visitors in advance by contacting the relevant ward or unit.