Heart failure patients scared to hug their children for fear of contracting Covid-19

Heart failure patient and advocate, Pauline O'Shea, pictured with her daughter Ali, says it is time to move high risk heart patients from the current category 7 to category 4 in the national Covid 19 immunisation plan.

Some heart failure patients have stopped hugging their children when they come home from school because they are afraid of contracting Covid-19 from them.

The Irish Heart Foundation said it had heard from several patients expressing their fears around close contact with their children.