Love in the time of Covid leads to drop in condom demand

NEW figures have laid bare the impact of the coronavirus on the love lives of the younger generation.

In response to queries from the Irish Mail on Sunday, the Department of Health has confirmed that a total of 445,658 condoms were ordered from the HSE’s National Condom Distribution Service (NCDS) between January and December of 2020.

This was in stark contrast to the previous year, as the 2019 NCDS annual report confirmed that 730,439 condoms were ordered from 115 organisations that year.

The same report noted there had been a rise of 80% in the number of condoms ordered between 2017 and 2019.

The National Condom Distribution Service was established by the HSE’s Sexual Health and Crisis Pregnancy Programme in 2015. It functions as a central point for distributing free condoms and lubricant sachets to HSE services working with groups at risk of unplanned pregnancy or sexually trasmitted diseases.

A total of over two million condoms have been ordered by services registered with the NCDS since it was established.

In 2020 the scheme covered 17 counties – Carlow, Cavan, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Laois, Limerick, Louth, Mayo, Monaghan, Sligo, Waterford, Wicklow and Wexford.