‘People who visited nursing homes should not feel blame’

People who visited nursing homes should not feel they are to blame for spreading coronavirus, Ireland’s chief medical officer has said.
By The Newsroom
Published 10th May 2020, 11:07 BST
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan at the Government Buildings Press Centre in Dublin, addressing the media on the state of the coronavirus lockdown in Ireland.Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan at the Government Buildings Press Centre in Dublin, addressing the media on the state of the coronavirus lockdown in Ireland.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan at the Government Buildings Press Centre in Dublin, addressing the media on the state of the coronavirus lockdown in Ireland.

Dr Tony Holohan stressed visitors did not bring the virus into homes and they should not feel responsible for the outbreaks in nursing homes.

“It gives me disquiet because individuals who visited in that time period know who they are… they are people who visited their loved ones in those nursing homes and there is a sense of blame attached to them and they feel some responsibility for something they did not do.

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“Even if it was the case that visitors brought the infection into nursing homes – this is a highly transmissible virus. It is more transmissible than flu and we see flu getting into nursing homes... every winter. It is important that some people who visited nursing homes should not feel some sense of implicit blame if they visited their loved ones in a time period where we don’t believe the infection got into nursing homes.”

Related topics:PeopleIreland

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