GARDAÍ HAVE ISSUED a warning over ‘boy racers’ gathering in many areas of Cork at night. 

Speaking to C103 this morning, Sergeant James O’Donovan said that there has been a number of reports of boy racers meeting around the west Cork division, in areas such as Drinagh, Skibbereen, Dunmanway and Macroom. 

He said there have been reports of groups of up to 20 cars meeting up in the division. 

“I suppose it’s particularly frustrating … when there are movement restrictions due to Covid-19,” Sergeant O’Donovan said. 

He warned that gardaí have a view of prosecuting these drivers “if they are in breach of any road traffic regulations”. 

“For those people who maybe are participating in this kind of activity, we want them to know there can be ramifications down the line if you are prosecuted for road traffic offences, that there are employment avenues down there that you’re cutting off if you have road traffic convictions,” he said.

Community

This warning comes after Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan yesterday evening expressed concern about the number of Covid-19 cases in the community, particularly among younger people.

At yesterday’s press conference at the Department of Health, Dr Holohan said the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) is largely optimistic about the progress made, but would like to see the number of new cases in the community dropping to a lower level now.

“We’re seeing continued improvement in the number of incident cases, the number of cases coming from the nursing home sector has slowed down,” he said. “We are seeing a persistent number of infections coming from the community, if I’m honest about it, particularly from younger people in the community, it’s a number that isn’t falling as much as we would like and we’re keeping an eye on that.”

Holohan said the number of people in intensive care units is continuing to drop so they are “seeing trends moving in the right direction”. However, he said he could not say today that we will be in a position on 18 May to begin Phase 1 of the roadmap.

“If the conditions were today, I think we still aren’t at that point. But I’m hopeful.”

With reporting by Michelle Hennessy