A distressed woman has told how three members of her family aged in their 40s and 50s are in ICU battling coronavirus.
Amanda has an underlying immune disorder that means she is compromised right now and forced to cocoon, even though she is fit and healthy.
She told Joe Duffy on RTE Radio One: “The reality is you won’t be able to go in and visit, you just wait for updates from other family members who are obviously hugely distressed.
“People make it sound like you just stay away from people for 12 weeks but that’s the last opportunity I got to see people and to touch them.
“The narrative around this is that 80% are fine and it’s mainly elderly people [badly affected] but the reality is that my relatives in ICU are not elderly.
“They are 40s-50s with no underlying health issues.
“It was very quick that they ended up in ICU.”
The caller added: “I can’t stress enough; you do not want this to touch your family.
“All the talk about ICU beds and ventilators will mean nothing, it’s the amount of time people are in beds using these ventilators.
“It’s about the queue behind them.
“We don’t want to be here in 12 months saying ‘what if?’ - we need to act now.”
