Four in 10 people wear face coverings, figures show
Just over four in 10 people wear face coverings, according to figures from the Department of Health.
That is despite government advice to wear masks on public transport and in shops.
It comes as the National Public Health Emergency Team said there
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It brings the death toll from the disease to 1,720.
It was also announced that there have been 10 new confirmed cases of the virus in Ireland.
There is now a total of 25,391 cases in the country.
NPHET said that as of midnight on Monday 404,989 tests have been carried out.
Over the past week, 18,368 tests were carried out. 97 tests were positive, giving a positivity rate of 0.5%.
Earlier today, an Oireachtas committee heard that face masks should have been made mandatory for healthcare workers from the start of the pandemic.
Phil Ni Sheaghdha, head of the Irish Nursing and Midwives Organisation (INMO), said she had to lobby hard to get masks made mandatory for healthcare workers.
Ms Ni Sheaghdha said that up until April 22, face masks were not recommended for all healthcare workers.
She said: “We had to lobby and cajole and I had to write six letters to the Health Service Executive (HSE) in all, so that face masks would be made mandatory for healthcare workers.”
The Covid-19 response committee heard Ireland has one of the highest reported infection rates of Covid-19 among healthcare workers in the world.
“We had a situation where one of our members was sent home for wearing a face mask, she had been advised that it was against HSE policy – she was actually sent home.
“That became an industrial relations matter that we eventually resolved.”
She said after the HSE made face masks mandatory for healthcare workers on April 22, there was a “dramatic” drop in the number of infections of healthcare workers.
