‘Do the right thing’ — infectious disease expert urges public to continue mask-wearing

Professor Jack Lambert has urged people to “continue to do the right thing” and wear masks in shops, on public transport and around vulnerable people.

While masks may no longer be mandatory, infectious disease professor Jack Lambert has urged people to “continue to do the right thing” and wear masks in shops, on public transport and around vulnerable people.

“Whether it is mandatory or not, I think there should be a message, clearly, from our Government, that people should continue to do the right thing.

“I don’t want to go into a shop and cough on an elderly person and then they are going to end up sick in the hospital. They may not end up dying but they are ending up with serious morbidities.

I just think we need to collectively continue to wear masks on public transportation, in shops and in all these kinds of places.

“That is gone by the wayside. I don’t think people seem to realise the contagiousness of this virus and the fact that it is serious for certain populations,” he told Newstalk Breakfast.

Increased hospitalisation

Prof. Lambert’s comments come as the number of people hospitalised with Covid-19 increasing by almost 60% over the last two weeks, meaning there are now more patients with the virus in hospital than there were in late January.

On Monday morning, the number of Covid patients surpassed 1,000 — for the first time in almost two months. There are currently 1,042 people with the virus and 41 in ICUs.

While some have thrown their face masks in the bin, Prof Lambert warns that Covid-19 is still a serious illness. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

He added that while Covid is no longer the threat it once was, it is still making people sick and affecting hospital capacity.

“The good news is this is a different virus,” he said.

“Omicron is a different virus than Delta. The same number of people are not ending up in the ICU.

“Elderly people and people who are immunocompromised are still ending up in the hospital sick and they are requiring a few days in the hospital — but not weeks and weeks or months of hospitalisation like in the first few waves of the serious variants of Covid.” 

Still serious

Prof. Lambert said Covid-19 vaccines have “helped make it less of a killer” but it remains “a serious virus.” 

“I continue to use all the Covid prevention strategies,” he said. “The message I don’t think the Irish public are getting is, this is a serious virus – it is not a killer but it’s still a serious virus.

“It is still infecting people. The message is that we should be continuing to wear masks. We should be continuing to handwash. The Covid mitigation message has just gone totally from the public airspace — nobody is being told that.”