Mr. Liam Woods:

I thank the Senator. In brief, in terms of staff absence the Senator is right in saying we are talking about both Covid-positive and Covid-contact scenarios. Indeed, there are staff who are cocooning because they are vulnerable to the condition.

In terms of infection, the Senator is absolutely correct. We have data on the numbers of outbreaks. Right now, for example, there are 120 open outbreaks in the acute setting. We have also got those data for community settings. We also look at hospital-acquired cases. By way of example, in the week to 17 January, we had 442 hospital-acquired cases of Covid-19.

We are also keeping a close eye on laboratory-confirmed positive cases. The measures in place to address that, without taking too much of the Senator's time, are very much the infection prevention control guidance that we have in place through Professor Martin Cormican and colleagues, a lot of training and support, as well as provision of personal protective equipment, PPE, that is thankfully at this stage available, whereas the Senator will recall we had struggled with that in the first phase. Of course, the infrastructure we are working in and the increasing modernisation of that infrastructure is of assistance but some of our infrastructure is quite dated and that presents additional challenges.