It is understood that Dr Holohan wrote to Stephen Donnelly on Monday afternoon. Sources said that in the letter, Dr Holohan told the Minister that Level 5 would be needed to control the virus in the coming weeks. However, Dr Holohan raised concerns that this is not being implemented by the HSE, sources said, raising concerns that it may be of particular importance due to high levels of anticipated mixing over Christmas. Dr Holohan told the Nphet briefing people should stay at home and stop socialising due to the rapidly deteriorating situation with Covid-19. Dr Holohan said in a statement that “our current disease trends are gravely concerning”.

Source: The Irish Times December 21, 2020 17:36 UTC