Dr. Ronan Glynn:

What we have seen over the past number of weeks is a rise in the number of cases generally in our communities around the country, the vast majority of which have been in households.

It is no surprise that children living in households where there is a case have themselves being identified as cases and that is entirely consistent with the picture internationally. The key reassuring point to make to parents and carers who are particularly worried is that the vast, vast, vast majority of children who are diagnosed with Covid-19 will have mild, if any, symptoms and our experience in Ireland to date bears that out. We have had 274 cases in children up to four years of age and 507 cases in children up to 14 years of age to date. Just 42 have been hospitalised and thankfully just two have been admitted to critical care units and again, thankfully, we have no deaths. I am not saying that some children have not had a negative outcome or a negative course as a result of this but again, we need to weigh up all of the risks and benefits when we make recommendations and decisions around this.