While progress has been made on supplying personal protective equipment (PPE) to health service staff, it is clear that concerns remain about the level of provision in the care sector.
This is an issue that is causing considerable fear among domiciliary care workers, who enter a number of homes every day, providing personal care to highly vulnerable people.
Not only are they deeply worried about spreading the virus among their usually frail and elderly clients but they are also terrified about bringing any infection back to their own families.
In such circumstances, these carers and those they are looking after, are entitled to the highest degree of protection from the deadly coronavirus.
Similar concerns have been expressed about the situation in care homes, twenty of which have reported Covid-19 cases according to health minister Robin Swann earlier this week.
In residential settings there are obvious issues regarding transmission and we have heard about a number of residents who have sadly died.
Although the number of Covid-19 related deaths in hospital are released daily, there is less clarity regarding the fatality rate in the community.
It is important to have the full picture about the impact of this dreadful virus while those who provide vital care in all settings must be adequately safeguarded.
