Dr Tony Holohan has warned parents they “can’t be going from house to house” with their children this Halloween.
He said: “This will not be a proper Halloween.”
The Chief Medical Officer also said that playdates, birthday parties and house parties are all out from now.
Dr Holohan’s grim advice came after he announced that there had been another 825 new Covid-19 cases in a day, and one more death.
He also warned of how serious the situation is getting in nursing homes.
The country saw 1,000 elderly nursing home residents wiped out in the first wave and the country’s most respected doctor warned there will be more deaths again unless we act now.
There are now 20 counties in the country with an incidence rate of over 100 in 100,000.
The nationwide 14 day average now stands at 168 per 100,000.
We have gone from having eight people in hospital with the virus on August 1 to 224.
Dr Holohan said: “Now is not the time for house parties, not the time for playdates, not the time for birthday parties.”
And then he sounded the death knell for trick or treating when he said: “This will not be a proper Halloween.
“You can’t have children and families going from house to house.”
In relation to nursing homes, he said: “I think that there is no question if things continue to deteriorate we will see more nursing homes impacted and unfortunately then more mortalities.”
Dr Owen O’Flynn, 23, had massive heart and lung problems when he got Covid-19 in April.
He told the Department of Health briefing how it had affected him.
He said: “Everything took effort, everything had me wiped.
“I wondered would I ever leave ICU, would I die there.
“Those two days in ICU were my lowest point. They were very dark days, we were in unknown territory.”
NPHET meets again on Thursday morning to analyse the latest data before making another recommendation to Government on further lockdown restrictions.
