Coronavirus spread “astonishingly stable”
The head of the country's COVID-19 modelling group has said the spread of the virus appears to be “astonishingly stable” in Ireland.
Professor Philip Nolan said there were good signs that the first phase of reopening has not had an adverse effect.
“Almost everything we are seeing is from my perspective astonishingly stable,” he said.
“The fact that we are seeing nothing in terms of an increase in disease. It remains early to be confident that that is telling us this is working but it remains a very good sign.”
Irish economy facing its largest recession
A new report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) says the Irish economy is facing its largest recession in history, as COVID-19 lockdown takes its toll.
Its summer quarterly economic commentary examines three potential scenarios: baseline, severe and benign.
The baseline scenario is considered the most likely, and follows the Government roadmap for re-opening through to August.
After this, it says the economy begins to recover but operates below its ‘pre-pandemic’ level due to ongoing measures such as physical distancing.
HSE ‘can’t say’ when screening will resume
The number of people who may get a delayed cancer diagnosis as a result of COVID-19 is not known.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) says it has not quantified the knock-on effect of screening services being closed for two months.
Screening for cervical, bowel and breast cancer stopped on March 27th.
The health service says it has not quantified the potential delayed diagnoses as a result.
Department of Social Protection handed €6.8bn extra funding
The Dáil has approved billions of Euro in additional funding for the Department of Social Protection.
The Department was set to run out of money next week as a result of the COVID-19 wage support programmes.
The Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty told the house that an extra €6.8bn was needed - €4.3bn of which will go towards the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and the wage subsidy scheme.
She said all payments would stop without the approval.
Today is expected to be the hottest day of the year so far.
Met Éireann said temperatures could reach as high as 28C in some parts of the country this afternoon.
Forecaster Jean Byrne said the warm weather should continue across the weekend.
“Plenty of sunshine today and tomorrow, another dry day with good sunshine – probably a little bit hazier, there will be some high cloud at times,” she said.
“The temperatures will still be warm over the next few days right through the weekend.
