“This email is covered by the disclaimer found at the end of the message.”

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This is an automated message:

Thank you for your FOI request.  The FOI team will formally acknowledge
receipt of your FOI request in due course.

However, in the meantime please consider the following.  Due to the
current pandemic, staff within the Public Health Agency are working at
full capacity to respond to and manage the situation day by day.  If you
have submitted an FOI request seeking COVID-19 related information, it is
those same staff who will have to be taken from this work and deployed in
order to provide you with a response. 

Over the past few months, there has been an increasing amount of
information and statistics made available on the internet, updated on a
daily or weekly basis, in order to inform the public.  This information
can be found at:

• [1]DoH Daily Dashboard 
• [2]NISRA dashboard
• [3]PHAWeekly COVID 19 & Monthly Epidemiological Bulletins

If your FOI request is COVID-19 related, please take a look at these
resources online – perhaps they will provide the information you are
seeking.  If they do, it would be extremely helpful to us if you would
withdraw your request to avoid us having to process your request further. 
You can do this by sending a follow-up e-mail to the above email address
advising that you wish to withdraw your request. 

If the web links above do not give you the information you are requesting,
or if your request is non-COVID-19 related, we will proceed with your
request as per our normal procedure.  Please note that given the current
COVID-19 situation PHA may not be able to respond to your request within
the 20 day timeframe laid down in the FOI Act 2000 however, please be
assured that a response will be sent as soon as we are in a position to do
so.

Thank you

FOI team

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References

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“This email is covered by the disclaimer found at the end of the message.”

________________________________

Dear Dr Jefferson

Ref: Freedom of Information Request No. 04/22

Thank you for your request for information. Your request was received by the Public Health Agency on 14 April 2022. This request will be processed under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, within the statutory timescale of 20 working days. While we will endeavour to provide you with a response within this timescale, in the event of disruption to services due to COVID-19 there may be delays and we would appreciate your patience and understanding during this time.

The leaflet attached is provided for your information and tells you about the legislation and our procedures for dealing with requests for information.

If you have any queries about this communication, please do not hesitate to contact us. It would be helpful if you could quote the reference number above in any future communications relating to this request.

We hope you find this helpful.

Yours sincerely

FOI Team

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“This email is covered by the disclaimer found at the end of the message.”

________________________________

Dear Dr Jefferson

Ref: Freedom of Information Request No. 04-2223 (04/22)

Please find attached our response to your information request received on 14 April 2021.

We apologise for our delay in responding to you. The PHA has experienced a considerable increase in the number of information requests received during the Pandemic and, at the same time, many of our staff were redeployed to assist with the work of the Contact Tracing Centre, resulting in further delays. We appreciate and recognise your patience and understanding.

If you have any queries about this communication, please do not hesitate to contact me quoting the reference numbers above.

Yours sincerely

Carol Hermin
FOI Team

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