Number of people with flu going to rise soon, Minister warns

Numbers of people reporting with the flu are “going to rise over the coming weeks”, putting the lives of elderly and vulnerable people at risk, Minister for Health Simon Harris warned.

Mr Harris urged all frontline medical staff to get the flu vaccine immediately and particularly mentioned nurses working with susceptible people outside of hospital settings, in situations such as nursing homes.

Mr Harris was one of six ministers who jointly launched the Government’s “be Winter-Ready” campaign, in the National Emergency Co-Ordination Centre in Dublin, on Wednesday.

Mr Harris said the Center for Disease Control in the USA had found vaccination to be up to 60 percent effective in preventing older people from needing hospitalisation, “and crucially 80 percent effective in preventing death in the elderly”.

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Mr Harris who last month declared a public health emergency as a response to the prevalence of the “superbug “CPE/CRE said he would “rather not” bring in laws to make frontline workers get vaccinated. He said he had been heartened by the response of nurses, their unions and representative bodies in hospitals which have been advocating that their members get vaccinated.

He said the flu vaccine was free to vulnerable groups who include the aged, pregnant women, people with disabilities, those with lower immunity and residents of nursing homes”.

Speculation

Mr Harris said there had been much speculation on the severity of the coming winter “much of which is ill-informed”. It was, he said, too early to say, as the winter season had just started and there was very little flu already circulating. However he said “it is important that we follow the evidence in relation to this...the numbers will rise”.

Minister for Rural and Community Development Michael Ring said emergency call buttons worn on the body were available for elderly people free of charge. But he warned some private organisations were attempting to sell these to vulnerable people. He urged families of vulnerable people “to fill out the form” on behalf of elderly relatives to avail of the call button which alerts emergency services in the event of a person needing urgent help.

Minister of State at the Department of Defence and chairman of the National Task Force on Emergency Planning Paul Keogh said the message was “be prepared, stay safe and know where to find help if you need it”. He said previous years had seen the Be Winter ready campaign focus on road safety or farm safety measures. This year’s focus was on health, but other areas should not be forgotten he said.

Minister for Transport Shane Ross said Transport Infrastructure Ireland had stockpiled 212,000 tonnes of salt to be used to grit roads and paths. The volume was significant considering that last year just 85,000 tonnes had been used. Mr Ross said he would not be tempted to “intervene” in the rail strike by poor weather conditions.

Minister with responsibility for the OPW Kevin ’Boxer’ Moran said 39 flood protection schemes had now been completed, a further 10 were in construction and 26 were in planning.

Minister of State at the Department of Housing and Planning Damien English said 200 new emergency beds for homeless “rough sleepers” had been agreed alongside another 87 dedicated beds in Dublin city. “We are prepared” he said.