Dr Paddy Mallon says it’s vital people stick to restrictions this weekend.
Infectious disease specialist Dr Paddy Mallon has warned that this Easter Weekend can’t become 'Ireland's Cheltenham'.
Speaking to Newstalk, Dr Mallon explained that the expected flood of cases has not yet happened in Ireland because of the measures Ireland has put in place to date.
The Irish government acted at the right time unlike in the UK, he said, where an event like Cheltenham was allowed to go ahead and now there were “tens of thousands” of cases as a result.
Dr Mallon, St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin, believes it’s vital people stick to restrictions this weekend.
''If everyone in the population centres in the east that are very heavily affected with coronavirus decide to take off for the weekend, then this weekend will be our Cheltenham'', he said.
''But if everyone just sits tight, this time next week we could see the rate of hospitalisations and new infections starting to drop off quite quickly''.
There are now just over 6,074 confirmed cases of coronavirus here and 235 people have lost their lives.
Gardai will be enforcing emergency legislation over the next few days to ensure people comply with the 2km and social distancing rules.
