FIVE COUNTIES in Ireland are being monitored closely by public health officials due to rising rates of Covid-19.
All five are being considered for localised lockdown, similar to that which was put in place in Kildare, Offaly and Laois last month.
Counties Dublin, Limerick, Tipperary, Carlow and Wexford have each recorded a rise in coronavirus cases over the past fortnight, and are now on a localised lockdown 'watch-list', of sorts.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) is urging people living in these counties to take extra care in following public health guidelines.
Chair of the NPHET Modelling Advisory Group, Professor Philip Nolan, says just because there may be a lot of cases, doesn't mean additional restrictions are needed.
Prof Nolan added that a local lockdown would not be the first course of action for any of the counties that are being closely monitored.
"These counties are each different from each other, you don't just look at a single figure like the incidence per hundred thousand people," he said.
"You look at the pattern of the disease, the nature of the outbreak, how much you know about transmission and how much you don't know. It's where you don't know and you can't track the cases where you have a problem."
