CONOR MCGREGOR has urged the people of Ireland to united in a nationwide lockdown against coronavirus.
Speaking in an appeal posted to Facebook prior to Leo Varadkar’s announcement of a strict lockdown on all non-essential travel and workers, McGregor preemptively backed the new measures.
“I know a good tough fight when I see one, and we have one on our hands now,” he said.
“I want to call upon my people, the great people of Ireland, this fight needs us all, we are all in the red corner together awaiting the bell. So let’s gather together and ring the bell ourselves, including the people of the rest of the world.
“True lockdown must begin, and it must begin now. A lockdown together, a lockdown united. We must close our airports, we must close all non-essential business, we must cut all non-essential travel.”
McGregor continued: “President Higgins you must give these great men and women the power to enforce this task if necessary.
“However, I know that when the true seriousness of this is understood, as it is becoming now, our great nation will oblige and impeccably do so.
“It is time for a full lockdown and we are ready. Powers that be I am calling on you all, the fate of our great island depends on it. This is a proposal and I pray that we can make this happen. We need to take the same measures as some of the heavier affected countries, only we must do it in quicker time.
“We have the advantage here in that we can see this coming. We can see this coming, but if we do not act on our advantage, then we cannot expect different results. We are not adhering to social distancing, at least not to the extent required to halt exponential growth.”
“A lockdown would facilitate this, it would reduce transmissions, it will take the pressure off of our frontline staff and it will allow us to identify all of our cases. These methods are stringent but necessary, and have worked in China and Hong Kong”.
McGregor concluded his speech with one final call to arms:
“Ireland, we have got this. Not only do we have the formula, we have it ahead of time. Let’s go Ireland, let’s go rest of the world –lockdown united, together we stand. God bless us all”.
Later that day, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced a raft of new restrictive measures including a ban on gatherings of four people or more.
The new restrictions will stay in place until at least April 19.
