Concerns about the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus have led to the cancellation of Galway City’s St Patrick’s Day parade along with the rest of Ireland’s.
The government announced yesterday evening that all of the country’s St Patrick’s Day parades were being cancelled in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
That decision came after both Cork City and Dublin’s parades, the two largest in the country, were both cancelled by their respective council’s.
The event licence for Galway’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade was one of the items on the agenda at the monthly meeting of Galway City Council which took place on Monday.
That meeting was moved from city hall to the Galmont Hotel after a Covid-19 risk assessment was carried out on the council chambers.
People infected by the coronavirus are being told to self told to self isolate for 14 day, and with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar acknowledging that more than half of the country could be infected.
This has led to the government announcing a €3 billion aid package both for public health, and to deal with the economic fallout to come.
People infected by the coronavirus will be eligible for a higher level of sick pay from the first day of their infection, €305 per day.
The government has created a new Cabinet sub-committee specifically to deal with this crisis, which met for the first time yesterday.
Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer with the Department of Health called the crisis a pandemic when meeting with the cabinet.
He said that while Ireland is still in the containment phase of dealing with this crisis, it’s expected that we will pass beyond that stage at some point.
Italy has extended its lockdown nationwide as the number of deaths in the country from the coronavirus has almost reached 500 people, and Tanaiste Simon Coveney has advised Irish people not to travel to Italy under any circumstances.
