Covid-19: 'The virus does not know it's Christmas', warns HSE infections chief 

Professor Martin Cormican, HSE national clinical lead antimicrobial resistance and infection control, advised people to meet outdoors and to only meet people they trusted indoors. Picture: Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland

The virus does not know it is Christmas was the stark warning issued at the HSE briefing on Thursday, as the authorities look ahead to a possible January surge in cases.

The key message from all the speakers was that each household must try to keep their contacts as low as possible in the weeks coming up to Christmas and indeed over the holiday period itself.