Deputy CMO urges people to avoid visiting other houses as authorities warn situation is ‘volatile’

The Deputy Chief Medical Officer (CMO) has urged people to avoid visiting other households as authorities this evening warned that the current Covd-19 situation is ‘volatile’.

Speaking this evening Dr. Ronan Glynn, Deputy CMO Department of Health, said while the majority of people are following public health guidance around one in ten people had visited another household for social reasons.

“The vast majority of people are making a huge sacrifice and missing time with loved ones in order for us to stay on course with the public health guidance.

“However, 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. 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 health advice and avoid visiting other homes at this time – do not give this virus the opportunities it is seeking to spread,” he said.

Latest figures 

The comments came as authorities this evening said that the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) has today been notified of 3 additional deaths related to Covid-19.

As of midnight, Wednesday, the HPSC has been notified of 606 confirmed cases of Covid-19.

Of the cases notified today 75% are in people aged under 45 years of age and the median age is 33 years old.

There were 249 in Dublin, 57 in Donegal, 39 in Kildare, 32 in Meath, 31 in Louth and the remaining 198 cases are spread across all other counties.

A total of 18 new cases were reported in Cork.

231 cases have been reported in the county in the last 14 days and Cork now has the second-lowest 14 day incidence rate per 100,000 people nationally.

'Volatile' situation 

Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said tonight: “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. It is important to remember that when the infection gets into a household the transmission rates are very high – up to one third of contacts within a household will subsequently become infected. It is critically important during this very volatile stage that we minimise our contacts where possible and follow public health advice.”