'I think we should postpone it' - Expert calls for Govt to cancel St Patrick’s Day parades

St Patrick’s Day parades in Ireland should be postponed to stop the spread of the Covid-19, a virologist and leading influenza expert is urging.

Prof John Oxford said the Government must take the virus “a bit more seriously”.

Ireland only has one confirmed case of Covid-19 but it is quite likely that the virus is “spreading around”, he warned.

Prof Oxford, who was speaking on RTÉ radio, said everyone in northern Italy thought everything was fine until there was an “explosion” of the virus.

St Patrick’s parades all around the country attract lots of visitors from abroad, Prof Oxford noted: “If I were in their (the Government) shoes, I would say 'I think we should postpone it’.

"It’s not the end of the world for one year but just don’t have it this year. After all, the Chinese postponed the Chinese new year, which is immense and then tried to quarantine 60m people."

I would take advantage of the situation you’re in — that you could prevent a big outbreak by taking these actions and I would go ahead and stop the parades.

“It would be a very fruitful opportunity for that virus to get a grip on your country and start spreading."

Prof Oxford also said he does not support plans for the Cheltenham racing festival to go ahead.

“We have seen how this virus can move in China and I think we should do everything we can to stop it. I know what politicians are like — they don’t want to do anything to upset the apple cart but, with infection, you can’t just sit around and keep your fingers crossed and hope everything is going to be alright. You just can’t do it.”

He knows that politicians will try to “wriggle out” of the consequences with all their excuses but he is looking at the situation from a public health point of view which is about protecting the whole community, he said. “You can’t take chances,” he warned.

I know St Patrick’s Day is important but it is not more important than having elderly people dying and it is not more important than getting every hospitals’ intensive care unit blocked up, which more or less brings a hospital to a halt.

Prof Oxford also said the Government should be a little less reticent when giving the public information: "You can’t be hesitant in the interest of protecting patient confidentiality. What you don’t want is patients dying."

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation’s director of industrial relations, Tony Fitzpatrick, said they are happy with preparations made by the HSE to deal with Covid-19. He added that of course, they have concerns about capacity in the hospitals and the availability of critical care beds if the situation develops but said the focus now has to be on containment.