The Health Minister says he's been coughed at as part of a prank being reported around the country.
A man in his late teens has been arrested in Waterford for allegedly coughing at people in Dungarvan.
While a healthcare worker in Dublin and an elderly couple in Co. Kildare were also targeted this week.
Simon Harris says people seem to think it's a joke.
"It happened to me yesterday. I was walking from here to my department and a man and a woman on the street thought it would be hilariously funny to come up to me and cough at me out loud, and run away laughing.
"Can we please just look at what is happening in Italy, where we're seeing several hundred people in a day dying from a virus that can be deadly to certain people in a population."
