YESTERDAY, TÁNAISTE LEO Varadkar said the government considering whether it should make it mandatory or legally enforceable for someone to restrict their movements or self isolate if they are a close contact or a confirmed case.

Although it is the advice, it is currently not mandatory to restrict your movements if you’re identified as a close contact of a confirmed case. 

The current HSE advice says: “If you’re a close contact of a person that tests positive for Covid-19 you must restrict your movements (stay at home) for 14 days. Do this from when you were last in contact with that person.” If your test is negative, you still need to restrict your movements for 14 days or until a date given to you by the HSE.

Yesterday, 591 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Ireland and chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said Level 5 restrictions “have succeeded in reducing community transmission of the disease”. 

He added: “Now is not the time to be complacent. We must keep driving down this disease- we must keep going.”

So, today we’re asking you: Should it be made mandatory for close contacts to have to restrict their movements?