COVID-19 Report, 15th July 2020

13 July 2020

Headline Update

Over the past two days (13^th – 14^th July), 64 volunteers were involved in 35 taskings and provided 309 volunteer hours to their communities.

Since 17 March 2020,

• A daily average of 59 Civil Defence volunteers have provided a daily average of 246 volunteer hours.
• A total of 29,516 volunteer hours have been provided by 878 different Civil Defence volunteers.
• A total of 3,680 individual taskings have been undertaken in support to the Principal Response Agencies.
• These volunteers have been supported by a fleet of Civil Defence Vehicles including 93 four-wheel drive jeeps, 39 vans, 31 ambulances, 27 minibuses, 3 operational support vehicles, 2 trucks & 1 welfare trailer.

Background to Civil Defence

Civil Defence (Cosaint Shibhialta) is a statutory volunteer-based organisation established in the 1950s. Nationally, Civil Defence is managed by 35 Local Authority Civil Defence Officers with a membership of approximately 3,500 volunteers. The volunteers give freely of their time and talents. The role of Civil Defence as set out in the 2015 Government White Paper on Defence is to support the Principal Response Agencies in both emergency and non-emergency events.

Civil Defence Co-Ordination

The Department of Defence has a co-ordination mechanism in place with all Civil Defence Officers in Local Authorities and has been meeting via tele-conference with all Civil Defence Officers and Assistant Civil Defence Officers every Thursday morning at 9.30 since early March. This is now changing to fortnightly tele-conferences in light of the improving COVID-19 situation.

Most Civil Defence Officers are involved in the Community Call forums within their Local Authorities.

Civil Defence Taskings

All Local Authority Civil Defence Units have been tasked by the Principal Response Agencies to support their COVID-19 efforts since mid-March. Support has also been provided to the Department of Justice and Equality and the Irish Blood Transfusion Service.

Examples of the types of tasks Civil Defence volunteers have undertaken include;

• providing administrative assistance to the Irish Blood Transfusion Service,
• transporting patients to hospitals, nursing homes and testing centres,
• collection of medications and medical equipment and delivering to patients homes,
• transporting test samples daily for the HSE to the UCD National Laboratory and to other Laboratories,
• providing assistance to vulnerable persons within communities by delivering food and medications and collecting their post,
• supporting young people with special requirements in their education by delivering homework packs,
• delivering essential PPE to community hospitals and nursing homes,
• transporting COVID-19 positive persons from accommodation centres to other locations to allow for self-isolation,
• transporting healthcare staff from their accommodation to nursing homes,
• transporting healthcare workers involved in carrying out COVID-19 testing to nursing homes,
• setting up isolation centres and transporting food and laundry for homeless services,
• collecting foodstuffs from suppliers and bakers for food hub,
• distributing PPE for local authority sector,
• delivering activity packs to families on behalf of family resource centre,
• providing Information Manager to Inter Agency Emergency Management Office,
• delivering PPE ‘donning and doffing’ training to local authority,
• delivering ‘first aid/safety in the home’ zoom demo to at risk members of the community,
• sorting and packing PPE packs for funeral undertakers,
• assisting with monitoring of beaches,
• delivering clothing to women’s refuge

 

 

 

 

  

 

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