Simon Harris has blasted 'disgusting' social media games which see people coughing in other’s faces amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Health Minister told how he too had been the victim of such behaviour, with two people coughing at him in the street on Tuesday.
The news comes just hours after Ireland had its seventh confirmed Covid-19 death, as the total number of infected people rose again to 1,329.
Speaking at another Government briefing this morning, he said: “There are people bizarrely deciding to cough in other people’s faces.
“This actually happened to me yesterday as I was walking from here to my department when a man and woman on the street thought it was hilariously funny to come up and cough at me and then run off laughing.
“Can we please as people just look at what’s happening in Italy, in the European Union, where we are seeing 700 people a day dying from a virus that can be deadly to some people in our population.
“And when you think, I think particularly of older people who are being targeted in relation to this, and there seems to be some sort of social media kind of game? But it’s not a game it’s disgusting.”
Mr Harris went on to urge those playing such stupid games to think of their loved ones, or someone they know who may have an underlying condition.
He added: “Putting on that you would target people in your community, particularly older people and go up, cough in their face, video it and have a laugh and run off.
“Just think if it was your own granny, granddad, mother or father, or your own friend with an underlying health condition like cystic fibrosis.”
