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Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn at the Department of Health this evening. Sasko Lazarov

NPHET says Christmas and Halloween not 'cancelled' as people advised to plan festivities in Covid-19 environment

Dr Ronan Glynn said messages about how to safely socialise at these times will likely be issued.

CHRISTMAS AND HALLOWEEN have not been cancelled due to the pandemic public health measures, Dr Ronan Glynn has assured, but the public is advised to plan festivities “within a Covid-19 environment”. 

The acting Chief Medical Officer this evening said NPHET will likely give some “specific messages” about things like safe socialising and trick or treating closer to the time in the coming months. 

“Let there be no possibility of a message going out of this press conference this evening that NPHET has said anything about cancelling Halloween, or Christmas or anything like that,” Glynn said speaking to reporters this evening. 

I think the vast majority of people…  know what they need to do to keep themselves safe, and I’m sure as it comes closer to the time we can give some specific messages to help people socialise and do things safely around that time.

“It comes back to the key message that the single greatest predictor of how safe or otherwise it will be to participate in activities, either at Halloween or Christmas or any other time, is the underlying circulating levels of the virus.

“At the moment they’re increasing, and we need to we need to get them to decrease.”

Glynn’s statements were backed up by professor Pete Lunn, founder and head of the ESRI’s Behavioural Research Unit, who said that “now is the time to plan for the winter months ahead”.

“Take control of your own environment by ensuring your household is up to date on, and actioning, the public health advice,” Lunn said.

“Getting outdoors and having social interactions outdoors reduces the risk more than the public think it does, and therefore we think this is a very important message to get out at this time – meeting outdoors makes a real difference and a bigger difference, it appears, than the general public has absorbed.

“Make it a habit to get outside, to socialise and exercise safely and automatically physically distance from others. Adapt to Covid-responsible behaviours in and out of the home,” he said.

Lunn also urged people to plan for upcoming events such as Halloween, Christmas and New Years’ Eve “within a Covid-19 environment”.

“As we come into the colder months and we face into the winter, planning how we’re going to get through as individuals becomes increasingly important,” Lunn said this evening.

He added that people should plan ahead to “have good clothing to get through the winter spending more time outdoors” than usual. 

“There’s also evidence to suggest that if we have to restrict our social circles, focusing on our highest quality relationships rather than quantity of relationships is good for wellbeing,” he said.

“So there are things that we can plan and do to get us through the winter, which will help us to adapt and that the evidence suggests will make the winter less cumbersome to get through while sticking by the guidance.”

Dublin and Limerick 

Dr Ronan Glynn said this evening that he is “particularly concerned” about the increase in Covid-19 cases in Dublin and Limerick. 

“The next week is vital and people really need to cut down their social contacts,” he said. 

“They need to take all the precautions over the next week in those counties.

They need to assume now again, unfortunately, that Covid is circulating in the community and act appropriately.

Glynn added: “I can’t say it strongly enough that people in Dublin in particular need to adhere to physical distancing. They need to cut down their social contacts.”

He said people still have the power to change the trajectory but that every person needs to have a higher level of risk perception than they do at the moment.

“If you’re meeting people, meet them outside,” he said.

“We want you to socialise, we want you to meet up with people, the last thing we want coming into the winter is for people to be isolated, but we really need people to do that more safely.” 

With reporting by Michelle Hennessy and Press Association

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    Mute KM TON
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    Dec 1st 2016, 1:14 PM

    I feel bad for people losing their jobs but this is the least surprising news ever. The only bit i of a surprise is that it lasted this long.

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    Mute Veroníca
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    Dec 1st 2016, 5:58 PM

    I’m surprised like you that it survived this length of time considering it was utter rubbish anyway

    11
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    Mute Alex Simms
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    Dec 1st 2016, 2:16 PM

    And so concludes the worst idea in Irish television history…

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    Mute Neal, not Neil.
    Favourite Neal, not Neil.
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    Dec 1st 2016, 5:34 PM

    You forgot about Channel 6.

    17
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    Mute Dave O'Hanlon
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    Dec 1st 2016, 6:28 PM

    Channel 6 was actually a decent idea, a channel aimed primarily at a young adult audience. The problem was when it got taken over by TV3 and turned into 3e. They could easily have kept it the way it was but no instead of looking at Michelle Doherty showing decent music videos there was yet more Ant & Dec with X factor loonies

    32
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    Mute Irish Cottage Rental
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    Dec 1st 2016, 1:33 PM

    One island two UTV’s
    A endless farce.

    139
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    Mute Carm(Orange Vampire)
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    Dec 1st 2016, 2:33 PM

    Does this mean that the real ITV/Ulster TV will be available to Irish viewers again?

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    Mute David Walsh
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    Dec 1st 2016, 2:51 PM

    @Carm(Orange Vampire): There’s no legal obligation on TV carriers in Ireland to carry any of the ITV franchises so it’s probably not going to happen. In any case the ITV shows licenced to the TV3 group would be liable to geo locking; that would make it as good as a non option to carry UTV/ITV here so all you’d get is Julian or Good Evening Ulster. Certainly Virgin Media would have no incentive to carry it, they being its opposition.

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    Mute Seán J. Troy
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    Dec 1st 2016, 4:23 PM

    @David Walsh: Didn’t the EU just pass a bill that ends geoblocking within the EU?

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    Mute John Flood
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    Dec 1st 2016, 4:26 PM

    Julian on camera is no longer on the air. He does prerecorded voice overs controlled by ITV HQ. Changed a couple of weeks ago.

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    Mute Screaming Toddy
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    Dec 1st 2016, 4:56 PM

    UTV will never be on Virgin again. Why would Virgin have a competitor showing the same rubbish stuff on their rubbish channels

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    Mute David Walsh
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    Dec 1st 2016, 11:45 PM

    @Seán J. Troy:

    1) It is only a draft resolution and not a law as of yet
    2) It excludes copyright protected services; this included media and broadcasting.
    3) UK will soon be outside of the EU and not regulated by EU laws.

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    Mute Gavin Redmond
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    Dec 1st 2016, 1:21 PM

    Created to fail. Somethings just don’t work.

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    Mute Owen Hennelly
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    Dec 1st 2016, 1:45 PM

    So will it stay on as a third TV3 channel or be wound up altogether? If it’s wound up will we be getting UTV NI back in its place?

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    Mute Paul Furey
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    Dec 1st 2016, 3:58 PM

    UTVNITV3

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    Mute Seán J. Troy
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    Dec 1st 2016, 4:23 PM

    @Paul Furey: I heard of that one, it’s a an African rebel group.

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    Mute Neal, not Neil.
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    Dec 1st 2016, 5:29 PM

    @,Seán the geoblocking thing was more about making sure that your can access your Irish Netflix or Sky on demand content while temporarily visiting another EU country

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    Mute Larry Doyle
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    Dec 1st 2016, 1:54 PM

    Great – even more Jeremy Kyle repeats!

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    Mute Tom Harpur
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    Dec 1st 2016, 2:54 PM

    A few years back TV3 had plans to start 3 classics 3 kids 3 sports and TV3+1 and a Sony HD Studio they commenced the Studios but scrapped the extra channels so maybe now they’ll rebrand UTV to 3 Classics or 3 sports.

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    Mute Neal, not Neil.
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    Dec 1st 2016, 5:31 PM

    It would be very interesting to see what a TV3 “cassic” is. Perhaps a selection of Vincent Brown’s crankiest episodes?

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    Mute John Flanagan
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    Dec 1st 2016, 3:33 PM

    UTV Ireland didn’t serve the deaf & hard of hearing community well because when it was first launched, there were no subtitles to be had at the time. Glad to see this god-awful channel go because of endless repeats as well!

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    Mute Screaming Toddy
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    Dec 1st 2016, 4:57 PM

    What?

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    Mute Scot Tanner Buchholz
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    Dec 1st 2016, 11:38 PM

    That is not the fault of the TV station rather a fault in Ireland not having ‘CC’ services like they have in Canada and the U.S.A. CC = closed captioning. The technology is out there. Ireland just lags behind in using it.

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    Mute Mick Mccomiskey
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    Dec 1st 2016, 2:53 PM

    This is very disappointing. Now I won’t be able to use utv Ireland player. It had most of the stuff available on itv.

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    Mute Neal, not Neil.
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    Dec 1st 2016, 5:33 PM

    TV3 own a lot of those programmes rights for the next ten years as part of the deal so they’ll put them somewhere.

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    Mute Mike Galvin
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    Dec 1st 2016, 6:14 PM

    All I say is I wish TV3 the best of luck with the 3 channels, whatever we might say. I only wish they would upgrade their picture quality on saorview especially for large screen tvs, the same applies to TG4.

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    Mute John Flood
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    Dec 1st 2016, 4:28 PM

    If you want UTV, get FREEVIEW Ireland via satellite. Best thing going. Pay for set up or DIY and NO fees afterward.

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    Mute Shane Kinsella
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    Dec 1st 2016, 4:44 PM

    You’re getting mixed up with FREESAT. Freevirw is the terrestrial TV service. Both of which are miles better than saorview.

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    Mute John Flood
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    Dec 1st 2016, 4:47 PM

    both Saorview and Freeview into a single Digital Terrestrial Receiver allowing you to receive all the Free UK & Irish Digital TV Channels on a single box.

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    Mute Dónal O'Flynn
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    Dec 1st 2016, 8:32 PM

    @John Flood: you’re still missing Shane’s point. You can’t get “Freeview” here that’s only available within the bounds of the UK. What we can get is “Freesat”. The only reason we have it at all is that the satellites have to cover all of the UK and can’t do that without also covering Ireland.

    Also available for the few percent of Irish homes that can’t get “Saorview” is “Saorsat” with RTÉ 1, RTÉ 2 and TG4 only, no purely commercial telly.

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    Mute John Flood
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    Dec 1st 2016, 8:41 PM

    I just cut n pasted text from my owners manual. Apparently not all of Ireland can receive the FTA channels of the satellite. I’m in Wicklow, my friend in Cork can’t get same.

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    Mute David Walsh
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    Dec 1st 2016, 11:49 PM

    @Dónal O’Flynn: there are plans on the cards to make most of the Freeview channels available to Saorview customers.

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    Mute Ciarán Masterson
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    Dec 2nd 2016, 1:27 AM
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    Mute Paddy Flynn
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    Dec 1st 2016, 3:08 PM

    TV3 2? I don’t think so.

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    Mute Tiarnan Guinée
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    Dec 1st 2016, 3:49 PM

    @Paddy Flynn: 3ee more like

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    Mute Scot Tanner Buchholz
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    Dec 1st 2016, 11:33 PM

    This is a sad day for freedom of the press, steps towards democracy and the people who will loose their jobs. Ireland is large enough to support Three tv stations. Rte should loose RTE2 and save tax payers money. #SadDay #UTVIreland

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    Mute von
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    Dec 1st 2016, 7:51 PM

    From TV 3 Ah well we can get rid of all the people who kept us alive for months but now we have Emmerdale and Corrie dory guys we don’t meed you. Bye bye.
    And the fat cats get fatter.

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    Mute Buster VL
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    Dec 1st 2016, 8:24 PM

    Aaa Wally free zone.

    1
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