Illustrative image of a school . – Fred TANNEAU / AFP
In Ireland , lessons will now be done at home. Confronted with a “tsunami” of contaminations at Covid – 19 , the country decided on Wednesday to close its schools, at least until the end of the month.
“From today and at least until the end of January”, “every schools must remain closed and lessons must be done online “, With a few rare exceptions, Prime Minister Micheal Martin said, announcing a new series of measures to avoid the overwhelming of the health system. The virus puts Irish hospitals “under siege”, he said, “we are facing a tsunami of contaminations.”
The sites called to cease
According to the health authorities, the country of 5 million inhabitants identified 310 patients infected with the new coronavirus in its hospitals, more than during the first wave. Detailing a “difficult” decision, the Prime Minister stressed that the “virus has reached a point where we simply need to stop movement in the country as much as possible”. Construction sites must also cease their activity from Friday, he added.
Until then, travel related to education was one of the exceptions to the order to stay at home announced a week ago, which already marked a tightening of containment entered into force after Christmas , on third for the country. Ireland registered 2. 190 deaths since the start of the pandemic and more than 72. 000 case of contamination, according to the latest figures published on Tuesday.
British soon allowed to cross the border
” We do faced with a month of January which promises to be very dark “, estimated the Deputy Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar,” a third wave which could be worse than the first “. He spoke of a “serious risk” of flooding hospitals and intensive care units. The government has also announced that the ban on arrivals from Great Britain and South Africa, countries affected by variants of the virus , would end on Saturday. Arrivals from these two countries will now have to present a negative test carried out in the 20 hours before entering Irish territory.