NPHET Chair likens leaving home with Covid-19 symptoms to drink driving

The Chair of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) has said leaving home with Covid symptoms or flu-like symptoms should be as seen as unacceptable as drink driving. 

Professor Philip Nolan made the comments this morning on RTE Radio One in the wake of Ireland's rising case numbers of Covid-19. 

Urging people to get vaccinated, he said, "It protects the individual from severe outcomes of Covid and it also offers population protection." 

He continued: "We have to be honest and we have been honest, we're always going to need some additional precautions to prevent the spread of the disease. Unvaccinated people are getting severe outcomes and it is also spreading subtly and slowly through the vaccinated population.

"You're better off staying home as you could potentially infect an unvaccinated person in your work place, even if you've been sick with the illness, even if you're vaccinated.