Now is not the time to relax as Ireland is entering a “delicate point” in the fight against Covid, a leading medic has warned.
Professor Phillip Nolan said the country and its people have made “extraordinary progress” against the virus.
But he stressed the prevalence of Covid-19 is very high and said the virus will exploit any chance to destroy that progress.
The National Public Health Emergency Team said it had noted a slight increase in the seven-day average of Covid-19 cases in recent days.
It said it is concerned that any further increase in the mobility of people could make the situation worse.
He was speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme.
He admitted he is worried that any easing of public health measures by people over the next while will “squander” the good work done to suppress the virus.
He added: “This is not the time to have mixing between households and not the time to be going back to the workplace unless it is essential.”
Prof Nolan said Ireland has had 52 weeks of living with the virus, but said with continued efforts, in 10 weeks’ time Ireland will be in quite a different scenario and again 10 weeks after that.
“In the grand scheme of things it is a matter of weeks before we can do more things because of the progression of the vaccination [roll-out],” he said.