By Michelle Devane, PA
A senior Government official has appealed to any young person who “slipped up” and attended a street party in Limerick to come forward for Covid-19 testing if they have concerns.
Liz Canavan, assistant secretary at the Department of the Taoiseach, said it would not be fair to generalise following the scenes on the streets in Limerick as most young people were adhering to public health measures.
Videos on social media showed a large crowd of revellers in the Castletroy area of the city on Tuesday night.
Three people were arrested after gardaí broke up the student street party.
Gardaí also issued approximately 30 fixed payment notices for Covid-19 regulation breaches.
Significant number of Gardaí attended a public order incident in Castletroy this evening. Three arrests and over 30 FPNs for breach of Covid Regulations. Investigations ongoing to establish organisers of street party. pic.twitter.com/xNE0AzBpDI
— Garda Info (@gardainfo) March 2, 2021
Speaking at Government Buildings, Ms Canavan said: “It would be easy to generalise but it wouldn’t be fair and it wouldn’t be accurate.
“The majority of young people are doing great and they have missed out on a lot.
“If you have slipped up and were part of last night’s events, the best thing you can do is come forward for Covid testing.”
Ms Canavan said the UK variant of the virus now accounted for about 90 per cent of all Covid-19 cases in Ireland.
“On average, one in three household contacts of confirmed cases of this new B117 variant are now testing positive,” she said.
“With the earlier variant, less than one in five household contacts were testing positive.
“This means that we have to work as hard, if not harder, to interrupt transmission.”
She added: “What we must not forget is how easily the trajectory can turn, especially with the new variant of the disease.
“This is the moment when we have to have patience and keep remembering that this virus is not finished with us yet.”
