The Irish Naval Service’s patrol ship the LÉ William Butler Yeats has docked at the Port of Galway to help the response to the coronavirus epidemic.
The ship was deployed to Galway at the request of the HSE to “generate more capacity” for the health services to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, and it is expected that the ship could be used as a test centre for the virus.
It is intended that 34 testing centres for Covid-19 will be introduced around the country, as testing for as many cases as possible is a key element of the strategy for delaying the surge in infections.
Her sister ship, the LÉ Samuel Beckett, is docked in Dublin to assist with the primary response to the pandemic there.
The Department of Health confirmed yesterday that there have been 12 confirmed coronavirus cases in Galway so far, as the nationwide toll has risen to 366, with 74 new cases on Wednesday.
Two people have died of Covid-19 in the Republic of Ireland so far, and in his address to the nation on St Patrick’s Day Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that we are in the calm before the storm, with 15,000 cases expected by the end of March.
