COVID Info and Advice | Family Carers

Ireland is moving from a short-term emergency response approach to a medium-term approach to managing risk and repairing the damage that COVID-19 has inflicted on society.

A Framework for Restrictive Measures has been developed to help us to go about our daily lives as much as possible, while managing the behaviour of the virus.

Download Resilience and Recovery 2020-2021: Plan for Living with COVID-19 here.

Current status:

Ireland now at level 5. See the measures that will come into place here.

You can see the list of essential retail outlets here.

You can see the list of essential services here.

The latest information, advice and guidelines issued by the Government will be published here and updated daily.

The framework consists of 5 Levels:

Click on each level for more information. The lower levels of the framework will be activated when there is low incidence of the disease, with isolated outbreaks, low community transmission. The higher levels will be used to deal with higher incidences of the disease.

Under the current restrictions, no visitors are allowed to a person’s home or garden with the exception of visits for essential purposes such as providing care to children, elderly or vulnerable people or as part of a support bubble (see below). It is possible to meet with one other household in an outdoor setting which is not a home or garden, such as a park, including for exercise.

People should stay at home and not travel more than five kilometres from their homes with some exceptions including:

Attending medical appointments and collecting medicines
Traveling to attend disability day services
Food shopping
For vital family reasons, such as providing care to children, elderly or vulnerable people, and in particular for those who live alone but excluding social family visits

Essential retail and essential services will remain open. This includes food shopping.

Social work and social care services (including disability services, mental health services, child protection and welfare services) will remain open and are deemed essential.

Those aged over 70 and the medically vulnerable are advised to stay at home as much as possible, limit engagement to a very small network for short periods of time, while remaining physically distanced.

Social bubbles:

For those at risk of isolation, it is permissible to form a 'social bubble' with 1 other household (of any size). You can form a support bubble with another household:

if you are living alone with children under the age of 18
if you live alone
if you share parenting or custody arrangements
if you live with an adult you provide care for (for example a dependent adult relation or a partner with dementia)
if you live by yourself and have a carer or carers who support you, including a live-in carer.

You can only form a support bubble with one other household if they are not already part of a support bubble. You can visit the home of those in your support bubble and they can visit your home. You can also meet outdoors and in places other than home. Wherever possible, you should choose a household in your locality to form your support bubble, but you can form a support bubble with a household outside the 5 kilometre limit.

To protect yourself:

wash your hands frequently with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand rub if your hands are not visibly dirty
practise good respiratory hygiene, that is, when coughing and sneezing, cover your mouth and nose with flexed elbow or tissue – discard tissue immediately into a closed bin and clean your hands with alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water
maintain physical distancing, that is, leave at least 2 metres (6 feet) distance between yourself and other people, particularly those who are coughing, sneezing and have a fever
avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth – if you touch your eyes, nose or mouth with your contaminated hands, you can transfer the virus from the surface to yourself

The most important action we can take to protect ourselves from COVID-19 is regular hand washing and good respiratory hygiene.

Read a step-by-step guide from the HSE on how to clean your hands.

By law, you have to wear a face covering:

on public transport
in shops, shopping centres and some other indoor settings - see the full list of places

Wearing cloth face coverings may help prevent people who do not know they have COVID-19 from spreading it to others.

Know the symptoms of COVID-19:

A fever (high temperature - 38 degrees Celsius or above)
A cough - this can be any kind of cough, not just dry
Shortness of breath or breathing difficulties
Loss or change to your sense of smell or taste - this means you've noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

If you have any of these symptoms, you should behave as if you have the virus and self-isolate. People in your household will need to restrict their movements. You may also need to be tested for COVID-19. Getting tested for COVID-19 is free.

If you're confused about the differences between symptoms of COVID-19, the cold and flu, the HSE has more information.

Get the most up to date, official information:

Family Carers Ireland has produced an Emergency Care Scheme in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Please click here to find out more.

For a guide to Covid-19 social welfare supports for family carers including a list of FAQs, please click here.

For guidance on cocooning to protect people over 70 years and those extremely medically vulnerable from Covid-19, please click here. Note advice for family carers (section 10).

For guidance on reducing the risk of Covid-19 infection for Older People and Others at Risk of Severe Diseases, please click here.

Also, Guidance for Health and Social Care Workers who visit homes can be found here. Please note that while this is not aimed at family carers, a lot of the advice is very relevant.

An FAQ document for people with disabilities and family carers (prepared jointly by the HSE, Family Carers Ireland and Inclusion Ireland) can be found here.

COVID-19 Community Call Forum:

As part of the Government response to the COVID-19 crisis, your local authority (council) has established a COVID-19 Community Call Forum. Your local forum works with State agencies and community and voluntary groups to provide supports or services to any vulnerable person who needs them.

Your forum brings together different organisations to provide important services like: collection and delivery of essential items like food, ‘meals-on-wheels’,
household items, fuel or medicine (in line with guidance) support if you are experiencing social isolation or are cocooning

If you need help, if you know someone who needs help, or if you would like to offer help, please use the numbers or email for your local authority (council) as listed in this leaflet.

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Covid-19 Information & Advice