With thousands of students expected to arrive in Galway City over the next few days in preparation for the start of the new academic year, health authorities have said that they are looking at creating pop-up test centres in anticipation of the expected demand for tests in the coming weeks.
With students arriving to NUI Galway and GMIT for the start of classes on Monday and with many having arrived already in the city for campus and online orientation, the academic population will rise to levels not seen since early March, leading to greater calls for adherence to guidelines to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking at the Regional Health Forum, Breda Crehan-Roche, Chief Officer, Community Healthcare West said that the health services are seeing a huge increase in demand for testing at drive through centres in every county in the region and that they expect this demand to continue as third level education re-opens and brings large numbers of people back into the city.
Appeal to students to adhere to hygiene guidelines
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“We are doing testing in nursing homes and at direct provision centres and we are looking at the planning for the opening of a pop-up testing centre in the city to accommodate the huge numbers of students who will be coming back in the next while,” she said.
Her comments were echoed by Tony Canavan, CEO, Saolta University Healthcare Group who said that the opening of the third level colleges will bring significant numbers of people back into the city and he pleaded with people to adhere to hygiene guidelines and to maintain social distancing.
NUI Galway reopened its campus this week to welcome its first year students to a three-day dedicated online and on campus orientation.
Senior university staff are leading familiarisation sessions with students as part of efforts to help them navigate their way in this new environment of learning and being on campus.
Returning students and teaching staff will return to the blended teaching model from next Monday in both NUI Galway and GMIT.
Regular communication with students
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GMIT will be implementing a mainly blended learning, teaching and assessment environment, with lectures delivered online and physical presence on campus for labs, workshops and practical classes. They have guaranteed their students they can organise their schedules across consecutive working days. Most, if not all, draft timetables have been released since last Friday.
“We have also been communicating regularly with our students and staff during the summer and more frequently in the past few weeks,” said a spokesperson for the college.
'We have introduced a mandatory face coverings policy, and we have also implemented a daily electronic check-in protocol for all persons'
“We have worked in partnership with our Students Union throughout, circulating a joint video of our President Dr Orla Flynn and our SU President Victor O’Loughlin advising returning and new students of the working arrangements.
“We have introduced a mandatory face coverings policy, and we have also implemented a daily electronic check-in protocol for all persons (staff, students, visitors ). We are implementing as far as possible a 2m physical distancing arrangement, permitting 1.5 m where we can ensure good ventilation over a limited time period, with PPE,” she concluded.
