Speaking at last night's public health briefing, deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn, warned that having the virus once is no guarantee that you can't get it again.
Questioned on public health advice regarding outdoor exercise, Dr Glynn commented that "people should certainly be getting outdoors if they can". However, while current guidelines do allow for people to meet up with one other household for exercise, the deputy CMO stated that "there's simply too much disease in our community" for that to be advisable.
"There's simply too much disease in our community still to advise people to be meeting up with one another. Outdoors is certainly much safer than indoors but I suppose a key point for people who are meeting others outdoors is to remember is just because you are outdoors you are safer, but you are not safe.
"So, you still need to wear a mask. You still need to wash your hands before and afterwards. It's all the measures, there's no one measure that makes you invincible."
Extending that advice to young people in particular, Dr Glynn commented that recent outbreaks amongst third level students may lead people who have already had the virus, to relax somewhat. Warning that there is still the possibility people could get the virus again, he went on to say:
"We have had outbreaks amongst third level students over many months now. So, there will be students out there who feel that they've had this before and they've nothing to worry about. That's not the case.
"You can get this disease a second time - particularly with the onset of new variants - and on top of that just because you yourself might not get sick doesn't mean that you can't transmit it to other people."
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Yesterday's figures reveal that there were 821 new confirmed cases of the virus with no deaths being reported for the first time since December 21 2020.
