A quarter (25%) of the 339 now confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Mayo are made up of staff at Mayo University Hospital. That’s according to the Cathaoirleach of Castlebar Municipal District Michael Kilcoyne.

He is now calling for Health and Safety Authority (HSA) to be brought into investigate what’s happening at Mayo University Hospital and he wants Saolta, the group responsible for the running of acute hospitals in this region, to demand the intervention.

Cathaoirleach Kilcoyne says the number of Mayo University Hospital staff with the virus is of real concern, and he claims that management of the hospital have questions to answer. He says he has been informed that in some cases staff at the hospital are working across departments- working with covid-19 patients, and others. This, he says, is not happening at Galway University Hospital, and the number of confirmed cases of the virus in county Galway is at present 10 percent lower than in the considerably less populated county of Mayo.

Speaking to Midwest News today Cllr Kilcoyne also urged the government deputies in Mayo to ask Minister Harris to urgently look at the problem.

The councillor raised his concerns over the incidents of the virus in county Mayo earlier this week at the monthly meeting of Mayo County Council.

Midwest West News has again today sought comment from Saolta on the situation at the Castlebar hospital and we await a response. We had sought clarification from Saolta on Monday on the high incidents of the virus in Mayo, but no comment was supplied.