A top infectious disease specialist has told how Irish people will need to adapt to outdoor living as we continue to fight Covid-19.

Dr Jack Lambert, Specialist in Infectious Diseases at the Mater Hospital said meeting people outdoors is the safest thing to do while social distancing.

And he said households will need to make changes in how we socialise at home safely.

He said: “We’ve obviously learned from the hospital that this virus is very contagious when people are in close contact with each other especially in closed spaces.

“The message to the public is that if you’re out in a park or in your back garden and there’s three or four of you sitting in the fresh air then Covid isn’t going to jump through the air.

“Socialising outside is the safest thing to do, I’ve no concerns with the outdoors once people are socially distancing and that makes logically perfect sense.

“I think we are going to have to change how we live our lives outside.

“If you go to most European cities they’ve got outside facilities outside main buildings that people use all of them time, we’re just going to have to adapt until we have a vaccine.

“We’re going to have to find a new environment, one where we can avoid close contact because that’s where the clusters are going to flare up again.

“I think moving forward we’re going to have to use outdoor tents, that is a practical short term and safe solution until we see what is going to happen.”

The top doctor, who is on the frontline, said people could invest in gazebos and outdoor heating facilities as the winter months approach.

He said it is a matter of people adapting their lifestyles safely in order to get back to some sort or normality.

He said: “All it takes is for one person to go into the house and spread it so I think people will have to be extra careful in their homes.

“People could absolutely invest in gazebos outside, that’s a practical solution.

“It minimises the risk instead of a small room with people around a fire which would be much more riskier than an outdoor facility on a patio with a tent or with a outdoor heating facility - that is a practical solution until we see how this goes.

“This may be our lifestyle for years and years to come.

“We have to do it, Italy does it year round, you go to Brazil and they all sit outdoors, nobody uses the indoor facilities.

“It’s bloody cold here but people will just have to put on warm clothes or make outdoor facilities more habitable for people so they can continue to survive.

“It’s driving everyone mad economically and mentally but we have to make it safe and try to get on with our lives or some sort or resemblance to life pre-Covid and I think that’s critical.”

Professor Luke O’Neill, an immunologist at Trinity College Dublin, told the Irish Mirror the weather here could play a vital part in decreasing the spread of the virus.

He said: “Outdoors is what it’s all about now for us because we know the risk of catching Covid-19 outdoors is very small.

“The reason is because it is massively diluted, being outdoors means the virus spreads less.

“As long as you remain two metres outdoors then it all blows away.

“You can imagine if someone sneezes outdoors the virus gets massively diluted, it’d be like sneezing into a swimming pool instead of a cup of water.

“If it’s a windy day it’s really good because the virus blows away, the Irish weather could be useful here when it’s a breezy day.

“Now that we’re coming into the summer we should all be outdoors as much as possible as the virus numbers will continue to go down.

“As we get into the autumn the dream here is that the viral count has plummeted by then and we’re in a much better place.

“But if that’s not the case people should get their burners going in their back gardens, head down to the hardware or garden centres and socialise outdoors as much as possible.”

Meanwhile, a leading climatologist said the public shouldn’t see rain and cold weather as an obstacle to being outside during Covid-19.

Professor John Sweeney told the Irish Mirror: “I don’t think we need to adapt particularly in winter, we already have a grasp of how we handle rain and inclement weather and it’s just coming to terms with the fact that we shouldn’t see them as obstacles to being outdoors in the way we have in the past.

“It makes sense to equip yourself but in terms of the difference here between winter and summer rainfall they’re not that significant in terms of comparison with other countries.

“It’s just a case of muffling up and getting your coats on and realising that we are creatures that can survive quite happily in the winter time.”

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