St Patrick’s Day was essentially cancelled in the Republic of Ireland yesterday as the Government put the country on lockdown as COVID-19 took its toll. However, those on the ISS still celebrated the day by taking some out of this world images of Ireland.
NASA’s ISS Twitter account shared the images of the Republic and Northern Ireland, from roughly 250 miles (400 kilometres) above the Earth.
The space agency tweeted: “We hope you’re wearing green. This #StPatricksDay, enjoy an astronaut’s-eye view of Ireland, taken from aboard the International Space Station.”
NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, who is on board the orbiting laboratory, celebrated St Patrick’s Day by tweeting images of stunning green auroras in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Ms Meir tweeted: “Even the atmosphere is excited and proudly glowing green for #StPatricksDay.”
This year Ireland did not be host public gatherings in celebration of its patron saint.
All St Patrick’s Day parades were cancelled in Ireland, and the Irish Government shut down all pubs for the occasion.
Ireland’s Health Minister, Simon Harris, confirmed the closures at a press conference this week following a meeting with the Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) and the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI).
He said: “The pub is a place of social interaction.
“We know when people consume alcohol it can remove inhibitions, it can be hard to tell people in such an environment to keep their social distance.
“We met today, the Chief Medical Officer and senior Government officials and the representative bodies of publicans across the country, and it became clear during that conversation that it was not possible for our pubs to comply with the public health advice.
“Therefore in the interest of public health, all pubs and bars in Ireland will close effective this evening until March 29 in line with the time period we have in place for school closures.”
Ireland’s Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said officials in the country expect there to be 15,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 by the end of March.
Around the world, total confirmed coronavirus cases have now surpassed 198,000.
The number of dead from the disease has also exceeded 7,900 with Europe now being the epicentre of the disease.
Italy is the highest area in terms of cases, with 31,506 as of Tuesday, March 18. Deaths in Italy have now reached more than 2,500 as of Tuesday, March 18, marking the deadliest outbreak in Europe.
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