THERE have been calls for teenagers to adhere to advice to stay at home after reports of crowds of young people still gathering in open spaces.
Some parents were said to have dropped children off at a known congregating spot in Poleglass at the weekend, shortly before police were called to deal with anti-social behaviour in the area.
Belfast mayor Daniel Baker said the message is slowly getting through, but small numbers of teenagers have still been gathering.
"The crowds have reduced considerably but there are still concerns," the Colin Sinn Féin councillor said.
"On Saturday night there were young people gathering in parts of Colin.
"The PSNI responded and removed them on and a small fire was put out.
"I've made a personal appeal to our young people about how serious Covid-19 is, it's a killer that we could pass onto our loved ones.
"Young people think they're invincible, we all sometimes think we're invincible, but that's not the reality of this crisis."
In London, teenagers Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab (13) and Luca Di Nicola (19) both died this week having contracted coronavirus.
"Just listen to the advice - stay at home," Mr Baker said.
"We also have to lead by example and in the good weather adults and families are still gathering in open spaces, so we all need to be a lot more sensible.
"There were a lot of mixed messages at the very beginning, young people were told it wouldn't impact them, or that it was just a bad flu, so you can understand why they think they're invincible.
"We've all had to change our lifestyle, but this is temporary, there will be good times ahead, but they won't be good if you lose a grandparent or a parent or someone you love and that's the reality of it.
"I like to look at the positives and people are staying at home and observing social distancing in greater numbers, we made right decisions at the right time such as cancelling the St Patrick's Day parade.
"The more people listen to the advice the quicker we can beat this, and so I would say to young people, this may not feel fair at the minute but it will pass, just do your bit now to help us get control of this deadly virus."
