“None of our nurses have died,”

The Health Service Executive has taken to Twitter to rebut a story circulating on social media claiming that a number of HSE staff had died after developing Covid-19 symptoms.

“@HSELive doesn’t comment on individual cases to protect people’s privacy.” the organisation posted on Twitter.

“However, when we become aware of fake news that causes distress to our staff and families we must act. Contrary to tweets sent yesterday – thankfully none of our nurses have died in Ireland from #COVID19.”

On Friday, The Irish Times reported that a nurse who worked in the east of Ireland was the first healthcare worker in the State to die of coronavirus during the pandemic.

@HSELive doesn’t comment on individual cases to protect people’s privacy. However, when we become aware of fake news that causes distress to our staff and families we must act. Contrary to tweets sent yesterday – thankfully none of our nurses have died in Ireland from #COVID19.

— HSE Ireland (@HSELive) March 31, 2020

Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave sent a tweet claiming four nurses “have now passed,” to his 55,000 Twitter followers. Despite numerous requests, the entrepreneur has refused to explain where the information came from.

To the 4 nurses in Ireland who fought so hard for so many patients, but who themselves fell ill, and have now passed

RIP

— Paddy Cosgrave (@paddycosgrave) March 30, 2020

Now Twitter users have called on the HSE to clarify if the deceased healthcare worker was a HSE employee or an agency worker.