CORONAVIRUS BULLETIN

÷FACING CLOSURE

A Limerick meals on wheels service, which was operating on a shoestring due to financial pressures caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, is to close on April 5 unless it receives further emergency funding. The organisers of St Munchin’s Community Centre in Kileely serve 200 meals a day to elderly and vulnerable clients across Limerick and parts of Clare, but were planning to deliver 1,000 meals a day due to increased demand. A spokesperson for the community centre yesterday tweeted: ‘We’ll have to shut our doors from the 5th April 2020 as we financially aren’t able to keep going.’ They further explained: ‘We are a social enterprise, we depend on our enterprises in the centre as income to keep our doors open, but we’ve had to close those the enterprises.’

÷WORRIES OF PARENTS

Parents of young children are significantly more worried about the impact on the economy than catching the coronavirus, a recent survey has shown. New research by parenting community BabyDoc Club revealed that 87% of young parents are significantly more worried about the impact of Covid-19 on the economy than they are about a loved one contracting the virus. ÷Keeping your mental health in order and not overeating were the two biggest challenges cited by almost half (49% and 48% respectively) of pregnant and young mothers self-isolating at home during the coronavirus pandemic.

÷ CHARITY’S ONLINE WORK

Barretstown is continuing to deliver therapeutic programmes to children and families affected by serious illness through live online interactive platforms. The children’s charity, which offers free, specially designed camps and programmes, has launched ‘Barretstown Live’, a new online interactive platform.