Coronavirus sparks concerns

An Emergency Department Nurse during a demonstration of the Coronavirus pod and COVID-19 virus testing procedures set-up beside the Emergency Department of Antrim Area Hospital, Co Antrim in Northern Ireland.

The trip is scheduled to take place to the Bormio area in the north of the country from April 4-11.

However, the Italian government has put the country in lockdown and only essential trips are permitted in an effort to curb Covid-19.

In a message on its web site on Tuesday the Rainey Endowed School said: “In light of this information, we would like to advise you that we are currently looking into all options for our groups travelling over the coming weeks and we will update our group leaders with further information as soon as possible.

“By necessity, we are prioritising groups in order of departure date. We will update you as soon as we have further information and would like to thank you once again for your patience.

“We respectfully request that group leaders keep in contact with parents as necessary as we cannot deal with individual parent queries through our office at this time.”

A number of events have been called off or postponed amid concerns about the spread of the virus.

The Antrim Board of the Ancient Order of Hibernians said they were cancelling the annual St Patrick’s Day parade in Toome ‘in the interests of public safety.’

In a statement on their Facebook page they said: “ We have taken the decision this morning to cancel the parade in Toome. It was a difficult decision but in the interest of public safety it had to be made. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

Bands and lodges from the East Tyrone and South Derry areas traditionally take part in the procession which is watched by several thousand spectators.