Ireland’s five-level Covid-19 plan attracts international praise

Just as the Irish Government’s plan for managing Covid-19 has come under pressure at home, it has attracted international interest and praise.

The five phases of the Plan for Living with Covid-19 were featured on the Dutch equivalent of Saturday Night Live over the weekend and discussed as a system the Netherlands could emulate.

“How nice would it be to make a super clear plan for the third wave with which . . . it is planned in advance the local rules that will take place at which level of infections,” said the comedian presenter Arjen Lubach, in a television show that mixed jokes, news commentary and criticism of Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte.

“In Ireland they use this,” Mr Lubach said, as the Irish Government’s colour-coded chart of the five levels and their restrictions was displayed to Dutch television viewers.

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“The only disadvantage of such a schedule is that someone in authority still has to announce: ‘We are now going to Level 3’ . . . So what we have to do we just link it directly to the number of new infections per week,” Mr Lubach said.

“It would be useful for us stubborn Dutch . . . if we see that measures will arrive in advance. Then we are not surprised by a press conference,” he added. “They are not new rules, but just existing rules that come into effect.”

The Irish system was also the subject of a long article by Danish broadsheet newspaper Berlingske, which reported on it as a model to learn from as the Copenhagen government came in for criticism for “arbitrariness and a lack of transparency” in its Covid-19 response.

“Transparent, predictable and an obvious inspiration for Denmark, say both health professionals and economic experts,” the newspaper reported on Saturday.

Stricter measures

A string of European countries have announced stricter measures to curb rising Covid-19 infections, but in most cases restrictions are decided ad hoc, without following a plan that has been set out in advance.

The Government’s launch of the Plan for Living with Covid-19 in September led for a call by the prominent virologist Marc Van Ranst for Belgium to adopt a similar system.

“What we need is a system with different stages with different measures,” he wrote. “Ireland is a good example.”

Both in the Netherlands and Denmark, there were appeals to the national governments to adopt an Irish-style system after it was featured in the media.

“In Ireland, a model has been found that has created predictability in corona crisis management,” wrote Martin Geersten, a parliamentarian in the Conservative-liberal Venstre party. “The government should be inspired by this instead of convening press conferences on Friday at 5pm and introducing new restrictions with less than 12 hours’ notice.”