Coronavirus: St Patrick's Day parade cancelled over virus fears, Irish government announces
Parades called off in Dublin and Cork as nation confirms 21 cases
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Irish government has cancelled its St Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin following concerns over the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus.
The annual event can see half a million descend on the Irish capital – however a sub-committee of the Irish cabinet dedicated to responding to the coronavirus has made the decision to cancel the street party over fears it may exacerbate the spread of infection within the country.
The cancellation follows the calling off of another event for the nation’s patron saint in the city of Cork. Ireland has so far had 21 confirmed cases of the virus within its borders.
The decision came hours after the nation’s health minister, Simon Harris, warned the outbreak within the country would likely become “very serious” while stating the public should not panic.
"I think that's a really important message, I know a lot of people are worried," Mr Harris said on RTE’s Morning Ireland show. "Over 80 per cent of us who will get this virus will get a mild illness, but for some of us we will get very sick”.
He added: "What we have to do as a government, and what we have to do as a society, is prepare, and particularly prepare to support vulnerable groups of older people and people with underlying health conditions.
"There's things all of us can do as individuals in terms of trying to slow the spread of this virus because the best possible chance we have in terms of dealing with this virus is to slow its spread.
"That helps our health service, it helps our frontline stuff and it helps us all as individuals."
It comes as nations across the world look to limit large public gatherings to ensure the safety of the public.
In France the government has banned all public events which will see more than 1,000 people gather, while Italy – the worst hit nation in Europe – has ruled that all sporting events must take place behind closed doors.
Meanwhile in the UK, which announced a fourth death on Monday afternoon along with an infection figure of 319 cases, the government has maintained it is too soon to cancel large-scale events.
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said: “We are not at this stage proposing the cancellation of mass events because we’re following the scientific advice that this is not what is proposed at this stage.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments