Covid doctor spells out actions needed to ensure a 'nice Christmas'

Dr Nuala O’Connor, the Covid-19 lead for the Irish College of General Practitioners and a member of the State's vaccine task force, said decisions people make now will influence the next few months. Picture: Larry Cummins

People must reduce social contacts by 50% now so that we can all have “a nice Christmas”, a leading figure on Covid-19 has said.

Dr Nuala O’Connor, the Covid-19 lead for the Irish College of General Practitioners and a member of the State's vaccine task force, said decisions people make now will influence the next few months.

“Stay at home if you have signs of infection, halve the number of social contacts over the next few weeks if you want to have a nice Christmas,” she said.

“Everybody needs to reduce the number of social contacts they have over the next three or four weeks.” 

Dr O’Connor urged the public to risk-assess their activities.

"We need to live our lives. We can live our lives, but it is about staying safe between now and Christmas."

She said it clear vaccines have reduced the impact of the virus and praised the “enormous buy-in” from the public.

However, relying on vaccines alone is not enough, and people should resume following guidance around mask-wearing, hand-washing and ventilation for extra protection, she added.

“I think people are taking action too late, and there has been onward spread already,” she said.

We are getting outbreaks in workplaces, funerals, weddings, parties.

She recently treated a child for Covid-19 who had been allowed to attend a number of social events with friends despite being symptomatic before being brought for treatment.

She said GPs and their out-of-hours services are “stretched”, and expressed concerns too at the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on hospitals.

“This is displacing our normal care,” she said. 

“If the hospitals have 96 patients in ICU beds because of Covid, that means cancer operations are being cancelled or if there is a road traffic accident then a bed may not be available” 

Dr Nuala O'Connor: Relying on vaccines is not enough.

Dr O’Connor said staying at home when people have symptoms of a virus can also help control the spread of the flu or common childhood illnesses like RSV (a respiratory virus).

“The flu vaccine is available,” she said and a nasal spray format is free for children aged two to 17.

“We are not getting a huge uptake on that. The RSV season has come earlier, and there are more cases,” she said. 

“We have a whole cohort of children who didn’t get any viral infections last year, they haven’t built up any immunity to it.”

Meanwhile, Dr Carol Blackburn, head of the emergency department at Crumlin Children's Hospital, said one-third of kids attending have respiratory illnesses.

She said less-serious illnesses could be treated at home but acknowledged this is challenging for parents to decide on.

“Some parents are new parents, they don’t know that it is normal for a child to have all these viruses,” Dr Blackburn said.

A healthy child would have six to eight viral infections in a winter season normally. But because of people having been locked down, this is something people have forgotten or don’t know or haven’t learned.

She urged parents to become familiar with conditions they can treat at home compared to the “red flags” requiring hospital attendance.