Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the handling of both preparation and response to the pandemic in care settings. There are now over 200 clusters of infections between nursing homes, residential care units, and community hospitals. On March 4, Nursing Homes Ireland announced a blanket ban on visitors to narrow the possibilities of infection. Further delay in recognising the particular issues in nursing homes resulted in full guidelines from the HSE only being issued on April 10. On RTÉ on Tuesday, the chief executive of Nursing Homes Ireland described the supply of PPE in the sector as “patchy”.

Source: Irish Examiner April 15, 2020 19:07 UTC