Cork 'carnival' scenes 'cause for concern', says health expert
Crowds Of In The A Picture: O'hare Eddie Gathered Which Night On Saturday City Centre Cork View
Scenes of hundreds of people flocking to Cork City centre over the weekend to socialise in a 'carnival' atmosphere are a cause for concern, says one of the city's leading health experts.
Public health advice is clear on the need to reduce contacts and avoid crowds, according to Professor Mary Horgan, an infectious disease consultant at Cork University Hospital (CUH).
“On Saturday night there were crowds. That’s the setting in which the virus is transmitted and that is what we want to avoid. It’s never good to be pointing fingers at people but these are the basics we’ve all had to live by the past few weeks.”
Being outdoors while in a family unit or in a bubble does help to mitigate some risk, she said, but the larger groups are a "cause for concern."
Nine minor public order arrests were made but gardaí insist that most of the public were overwhelmingly compliant with public health restrictions.
One of the city's leading publicans, Ernest Cantillon, said forcing people to squeeze their socialising over Christmas into a week or two runs the risk of causing large crowds to congregate. Mr Cantillon, who owns Sober Lane and Electric Bar, closed his bars for takeaway drinks at 8.30pm on Saturday evening.
“Town at around 6pm was packed but it had an extremely nice atmosphere. People were outdoors, they were moving, pushing buggies, getting coffees or mulled wines, and wearing masks. By 10pm, he estimates that there were approximately 1,000 people in the city centre, including a lot of teenagers and young people. He also saw quite a lot of older people out who "would have never been out during the first lockdown."
"If people are going to go out, pubs and restaurants are safe environments. This craic about squeezing festivities into a week or two weeks [at Christmas], you’re going to have the same amount of people who want to go out but with way less capacity so you’ll end up with more people on the streets.”