Covid outbreak at Mid-West salon resulted in 50 close contacts
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An outbreak of Covid-19 in a salon in the Mid-West of the country resulted in more than 50 close contacts, a public health official has said.
Dr Mai Mannix, Director of Public Health at the HSE Mid-West, said they were currently investigating more than 50 cases linked to more than 20 workplaces in the region, the vast majority of which are in Limerick.
“We have outbreaks in all settings at the moment: retail, hair salons, beauticians, offices, factories,” she said.
“We have reported a number of outbreaks in hair salons and beauticians in recent weeks. One of these had more than 50 contacts.”
Dr Mannix also highlighted one school situation where 30 positive cases were connected to birthday parties and social mixing, and which resulted in 150 close contacts.
She acknowledged the effort put in by workplaces to prevent the spread of Covid-19 over the past year.
“What we have found in practice is that because we are dealing with a more transmissible variant. It takes more effort to actually prevent outbreaks,” she added.
Dr Mannix's assessment of the Covid-19 situation in Limerick follow Dr Holohan's warning that the virus may still spread outdoors in large gatherings.
In defense of his comments in Dublin city last weekend, Dr Holohan said South William St looked "like Jone's road on the day of an All Ireland, that's what it looked like.".
The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) said that while some non-compliance with public health regulations is to be expected it was the scale of the event that he took issue with.
Limerick has the 14-day highest incidence rate of Covid-19 in the country, standing at 376 cases per 100,000 population in Limerick, compared with 122 cases per 100,000 population nationally.
Between May 16 and May 31, the county recorded 740 confirmed cases.
Dr Mannix attributed these causes to multi-community outbreaks connected to house parties and household visits, workplaces and some school settings.
However, Dr Mannix said there had been a very high uptake in additional testing by the community, a situation which “gives us hope”.
“We are very much encouraging people to come to testing so things will get worse before they get better.
"We’re hoping to find as many cases as possible so that people will isolate and take the appropriate measures,” she added.