Galway Bay fm newsroom – A HIQA inspection of Mountbellew Nursing Home has identified issues with staffing.

It found that in the event of an outbreak of Covid-19, there was inadequate nursing staff to ensure residents were cared for in line with health guidelines.

However, the issue has since been addressed through the recruitment of additional nurses

The inspection, carried out in November, found the unit was compliant or substantially compliant with 14 out of 16 criteria.

It found the centre was well-maintained with good facilities, and interactions between staff and residents were positive and engaging.

However it identified issues with staffing – with the inspector finding that at the time of inspection, it did not allow for two nurse-led teams.

This meant in the event of a suspected or confirmed case of Covid-19, one nurse would have to provide care to all residents, increasing the risk of infection.

Management said this was due to difficulty in recruiting nursing staff.

In response to the assessment, they said two additional full time nursing staff had been recruited, while a third was due to start in late December.

It also noted that two retired nurses were on stand-by to work in the event of sick leave, holiday leave or an outbreak of Covid-19.

Galway Bay fm newsroom – The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 9 additional deaths related to COVID-19.

4 deaths occurred in March, 3 occurred in February and 1 in January*.

The median age of those who died was 82 years and the age range was 69-94 years.

There has been a total of 4,405 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight, Thursday 4^th March, the HPSC has been notified of 522 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 222,169** confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.

Of the cases notified today:

• 275 are men / 243 are women
• 67% are under 45 years of age
• The median age is 33 years old
• 280 in Dublin, 28 in Meath, 28 in Kildare, 26 in Cork and 19 in Donegal and the remaining 141 cases are spread across 19 other counties***.

As of 8am today, 426 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 102 are in ICU. 34 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

As of March 2^nd, 460,637 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland:

• 316,056 people have received their first dose
• 144,581 people have received their second dose

The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community including daily data on Ireland’s COVID-19 Vaccination Programme.

ENDS//

*There is one death where the date of death is under investigation.

**Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 2 confirmed cases. The figure of 222,169 confirmed cases reflects this.

***County data should be considered provisional as the national Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting System (CIDR) is a dynamic system and case details are continually being validated and updated.

Today’s cases, 5-day moving average of new cases, 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population and new cases in last 14 days (as of midnight 04 March 2021) (incidence rate based on Census 2016 county population)

~The 5-day moving average of the number of new cases provides an appropriate indicator of current daily case numbers within a county. It takes account of any validation of cases for previous days and smooths out daily/weekend fluctuations in case numbers.

• 7-day incidence 82.6
• 5-day moving average 518

Galway Bay fm newsroom – The Taoiseach has been urged in the Dáil to help secure funding for a long-awaited new community centre in Newcastle.

Deputy Noel Grealish said the area has over six thousand residents, yet is still without any local facilities.

Addressing Micheál Martin, he said the Newcastle Combined Community Association has submitted an application for funding under the urban regeneration and development fund.

He noted that the community group has invested €200 thousand into the project to date, which he described as shovel ready.

Deputy Grealish urged the Taoiseach to liase with Minister Darragh O’ Brien to ensure the much-needed project can be approved for funding:

In response, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he would liase with Minister O’ Brien on the matter – to hear coverage of this in the Dáil tune in to FYI Galway@5