Coronavirus Ireland: Small amount of people being irresponsible could lead to surge in cases after lockdown, expert warns

A public health expert has warned that it'll only take a tiny amount of people to behave irresponsibly for Covid-19 cases to surge again.

Emeritus Professor Ruairi Brugha, who is head of the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), warned of the dangers ahead of lockdown restrictions being lifted.

Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland, the top medic cautioned: "The responsibility will be more now on the public."

He said: "We can only move into this next phase if people actually take responsibility for how they engage or relax in behaviour, whether they're going back to work, whether their children are going to school.

A person is tested at a coronavirus test centre (Stock photo) (REUTERS)

"It isn't enough to have four-fifths of us actually taking this seriously.

"It only takes a small number of people to behave in a way, in a celebratory way, we know that we Irish when we get the opportunity, want to be convivial and we do it around alcohol and we've seen the big increase in alcohol sales, it only takes 2% or 3% of us to behave in a really irresponsible way and this virus will jump up again.

"And it'll be a matter of when it happens, I think it's going to be very difficult to put a halt to the relaxing measures, put a halt on the economic measures."

He added:" If we don’t have a proven testing and tracking system, we won’t be in a position to risk new cases in the community.”

“How I behave, how all of us behave will determine if we maintain control or risk a second epidemic down the road."

Professor Brugha insisted that the public must "double down" on social distancing to keep the virus at bay and stay vigilant for symptoms.

He added: "Some people think 'we're going back to normal'. No, we're not going back to normal in terms of hygiene and physical distancing.

"The vaccine, it's a probability eventually, we don't know what that eventually is going to be.

"I do think there will be other measures that may come in.

"We are looking at the long haul, we are looking at into 2021, gradually relaxing measures, monitoring them very carefully."