A chara, – Shouldn’t those returning from the southern African countries where Omicron is rife undergo mandatory hotel quarantine, instead of (pretending to) quarantine at home?
– Le meas,
Dr RONAN BREDIN
Stoneybatter,
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Dublin 7.
A chara, – What happened to epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu, nu and xi, not to speak of the ancient Greek “f” word, digamma?
Does the World Health Organisation think that by skipping 10 or 11 letters of the Greek alphabet and jumping to omicron the sooner we’ll see omega and the end of the procession of Covid-19 variants?
– Le meas,
Fr SEÁN Ó COINN,
Maothail,
Co Liatroma.
Sir, – So the UK can instantly stop flights from all of the affected South African countries in an instant and we look on and say that’s brilliant.
Roll on 24 hours and our Minister for Health is on RTÉ advising us that he is bringing forward legislation early next week that will do the same.
So we could be up to four to five days or more behind the UK before we stop flights from the same countries. Something is wrong here, surely we have sovereignty over our own borders and can decide instantly where and when flights can come from?
Legislation needs to be passed giving the Government more flexibility in these situations.
Time is of the essence, lives hang in the balance.
– Yours, etc,
GERRY MURPHY,
Lucan,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – South Africa should be commended for its advanced genomic sequencing and its detection of the Omicron variant.
Excellent science should be applauded not punished.
As South Africa’s tourism industry is now in freefall, many in South Africa will continue to experience severe poverty. The world’s rich countries should provide support to South Africa and not discriminate or isolate it. Sounding the alarm should be rewarded not punished, otherwise other less transparent countries, will suppress the discovery of any future new variants. – Yours, etc,
JOHN R QUIGLEY,
Mallow Street, Limerick.
Sir, – Why do we again celebrate the preservation of the Common Travel Area (CTA), when we have been an independent Republic for 80 years, and when the current viral epidemic advantages island states?
The UK has population connections which are consequent on its colonial past. We do not have. The CTA should be ceased forthwith, reinstating the most significant barrier of our response to Covid, and its variants. – Yours, etc,
Dr NIALL KAVANAGH,
Kilkenny.