James Cox
Parents are being advised to reduce their children's activities over the remainder of the Halloween midterm.
The deputy chief medical officer says precautions should be taken due to the recent rise in Covid-19 cases.
A total of 4,393 cases were reported in children aged 5-12 in the two weeks to last Monday, compared to 2,930 over a similar period earlier this month.
Dr Ronan Glynn says trick or treating can still go ahead but reducing the frequency of children's activities needs to be considered.
"It's not a message that any of us want to be giving, and it's not a message I'm sure that parents want to hear, but we do need to take the basic precautions. On the other hand if we do take the basic precautions there's no reason that people can't do the things we usually do at Halloween."
Dr Glynn added: “If your children are going on playdates or engaging in sport, think about all of the other activities they’re engaging in and just see do they need to be engaging in everything that they’re engaging in, given how high the incidence is in the country at the moment."
Meanwhile, vaccinations are “not performing as well as hoped” in reducing the transmission of Covid-19, the chief medical officer has said.
Vaccination rate
Dr Tony Holohan said Ireland’s high vaccination rate has prevented thousands of hospital admissions, as well as hundreds of ICU admissions and deaths.
However, he said vaccinations on their own were not enough to stop the spread of the disease, and urged the public to stick to the basic measures of hand washing, mask wearing and isolating if they have symptoms.
He said: “Unfortunately, in crude terms, the vaccinations have probably done a little better than we might have hoped in terms of preventing severe infection.
“They have performed and held up their performance really well in protecting people from the severe effects of the disease.
“In truth they are probably not performing as well as we might have hoped in terms of preventing transmission.
“There is an impact on transmission by and to people who are vaccinated, but it’s not as great as we might like.
“It is possible for people who are infected, and who were vaccinated, to be infected and to transmit that infection.” - Additional reporting from Press Association
