One of the country’s largest nursing home groups has expressed surprise that State health officials criticised private homes for introducing early visitor restrictions before the first Covid-19 death. On March 10th, chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan questioned the decision of private homes to close to visitors four days earlier before restrictions were “really necessary”. The group had a resident in Teagleach Uillinn in Moycullen who tested positive for Covid-19 in the mass testing of homes but was asymptomatic. The group recognised that nursing homes and hospitals used foreign agency staff who tend to live with each other. He believes Tadhg Daly, the chief executive of Nursing Homes Ireland, which represents private nursing homes (80 per cent of the sector), should have been a member of NPHET from the outset.

Source: The Irish Times June 22, 2020 00:00 UTC