CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER Tony Holohan has said the typical Halloween celebrations are “not going to be possible this year I’m afraid”. 

Speaking this evening at a press briefing in the Department of Health, he said Level 5 advice and guidance will have a “significant” impact on Halloween and how children celebrate. 

“I don’t think unfortunately that the disease transmission levels now that we are experiencing are at a level where we can start saying we can set aside some of that advice and guidance notwithstanding the fact that it is Halloween,” he said.

He said the public health advice is clear, stating that people are asked to stay at home other than for specific exceptions such as essential work, attendance at school, childcare, and things like essential grocery shopping.

“The kind of mixing that that would go on is social settings that we are all familiar with at Halloween time – visiting one anothers houses, gathering together in the evening time for the kind of celebrations that we all miss – these things are just not going to be possible this year I’m afraid,” he said.

Earlier in the month,, the chief medical officer said: “We can’t have children and families move from house to house in the way that normally happens at Halloween.”