COVID-19 Public Health Advice | 12.11.21 | CMO

An update on the current situation with COVID-19 in the community and how you can protect yourself and others. TRANSCRIPT: Well, we have very high levels of transmission of COVID-19, one of the highest levels we've had over the entire course of the pandemic, right at the moment, what we call the 'force of infection', which really is the chance of you, if you're out and about, bumping into this virus is really very, very high. And when we combine that with very high levels of socialisation, we’re socialising now, across all the activities that we're doing - workplace, educational, retail, recreational - we're socialising at levels that are as high as any time in the pandemic and really at about the level before the pandemic began. When you combine both of those two, it's leading to the very, very significant increases in incidence that we're seeing across all of the age groups, with the exception of those people who've been through the booster programme, who are the people over the age of 80. For all of the other age groups, we're seeing a very significant increase in transmission. We've seen an almost doubling of cases over the course of the last three weeks. And so, the important message for you now: if you've yet to be vaccinated, come forward and be vaccinated. If you're due a booster, come forward and get your booster. If you're experiencing symptoms, you must stay at home, get a PCR test. You can't be out with symptoms at work, in school, in college, in the pub, or otherwise socialising or inviting people to your house. This is not a time for that. For all of the other messages, it's important that we, as we will say, 'layer up' - that it's not about one single thing that you do, it's about the combination of all of those...each of them is necessary. So, wearing masks, social distancing, staying away from crowds, behaving appropriately if you have symptoms, recognising risk and thinking ahead about the context that you'll encounter over the course of the forthcoming week or two weeks. So, a simple message in that regard would be if you're planning and thinking ahead over the next week, two weeks, think particularly about your discretionary contacts - going out socialising, having people to your house, think about those things and cut them in half. So, if you're thinking of going out to the pub maybe two nights of the week, perhaps just go out once. If you're thinking of having 10 people over to your house, maybe just have five people coming over to the house. And if you're thinking about risky activities, and high-risk activities, it is possible for you to do them. But it's really important that you follow all the basic public health guidance in place in those sectors, as well as the guidance that protects you as an individual. And if you have been out and involved in high-risk activities, think about the vulnerable people in your own family, your own loved ones, it's important, perhaps, to space out those kinds of activities if you're having planned visits to vulnerable people.