Dublin's Beaumont Hospital is marking World Hand Hygiene Day by projecting messages of hope and thanks from its staff onto a 60-foot wall.

The messages are written on images of hands as a way of highlighting the importance of hand hygiene, which is vital in the fight against COVID-19.

Staff at the hospital have written over 500 messages of support to thank their colleagues, the public and all who have supported frontline workers.

The projection is being live-streamed on the Beaumont Hospital Facebook and Twitter pages from 9.00pm on Tuesday and 2.00am on Wednesday.

Image: Beaumont Hospital

People can also share and show their support for frontline workers.

Beaumont Hospital is working in partnership with production studio Algorithm on the project.

It is being used to give a morale boost to staff working at the hospital and the public - and again emphasise the importance of good hand hygiene.

Hand hygiene audits form a major part of the hospitals reporting structures, and have been continuing throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

The results that were reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) in December 2019 were in line with the national target of 90% compliance.

Dr Fidelma Fitzpatrick is a consultant microbiologist at Beaumont Hospital.

She said: "Like everyone battling this pandemic, we are so grateful for the dedication and selflessness of those who are working at the frontline.

"We wanted to visually create a message of hope to stress how important hand hygiene is and will continue to be in the months ahead as we begin to see the country enter some kind of new normal."

Image: Beaumont Hospital

World Hand Hygiene Day is declared by the World Health Organization (WHO), and encourages patients and their family members to join health workers in their efforts to practice good hand hygiene.

"As we emerge from this pandemic, good hand hygiene will be an important contributor to public health", Dr Fitzpatrick added.