Ireland’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer has urged the public to avoid visiting people in their homes and giving the Covid-19 virus a chance to spread.
Dr Ronan Glynn said more people visited other homes in March than in previous months.
The vast majority of people are making a huge sacrifice and missing time with loved ones, Dr Glynn said, but more are choosing to socialise.
“We know that in the week ending March 14th, approximately one-in-ten people visited another household for social reasons, with most of these visits involving time spent indoors, ” Dr Glynn told last night’s NPHET briefing.
“While this clearly demonstrates that the vast majority of people are sticking with the public health guidance, it does represent a significant change versus January when just one in 20 people were visiting other homes for social reasons. Please continue to stick with the public heath advice and avoid visiting other homes at this time – do not give this virus the opportunities it is seeking to spread.”
Yesterday, NPHET reported three additional deaths related to COVID-19 and 606 confirmed cases. Fifty-seven new cases were detected in Donegal.
Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group said Ireland’s situation could very easily revert to another surge in cases.
“We are experiencing a levelling off in the daily incidence rate of COVID-19 and the concern is that we could so easily move backwards and undo the progress that has been hard-earned since the beginning of the year.
“The pattern isn’t entirely clear and continues to be volatile, so we’ll be monitoring this quite carefully over the coming weeks.”
For more local Covid-19 analysis on Donegal Daily, see: https://www.donegaldaily.com/2021/03/25/mapping-covid-buncrana-nw-irelands-second-worst-hotspot/