"People must continue to live their lives."
While social distancing is encouraged and is hugely important in Ireland as experts try to flatten the curve of the Cover-19 outbreak, a leading HSE figure has said that intimacy is not discouraged between partners.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio One with Brendan O'Connor, Dr Colm Henry Chief Clinical Officer of the Health Service Executive said that partners living in the same home, or indeed living apart, were not expected to stop all aspects of their lives.
"People must continue to live their lives with the people they love in whatever format that takes," Henry said.
"We expect people, most of the time, for over 80% of the time to keep their social distancing. We don't expect people to stop all aspects of their lives, be it intimate, or not. This could be a marathon not a sprint and we have to bring people along with us."
The most important thing, Henry reinforced, was for people to regularly wash their hands and avoid touching your face.
He advised to encourage other family members to engage in good hand washing practices and to use common sense.
Henry urged anyone who is sick with any of the new symptoms associated with Covid-19, isolate themselves and arrange a test.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation has called on young people to take the Covid-19 outbreak seriously.
"I have a message for young people: you are not invincible," Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. "This virus could put you in hospital for weeks, or even kill you.
"Even if you don’t get sick, the choices you make about where you go could be the difference between life and death for someone else.
"I’m grateful that so many young people are spreading the word and not the virus."
