Sir, – The Irish people in their second lockdown are once again doing almost all that is being asked of them, but so far as I can see the Government is set to fail us again on the big test – what will happen when we get the case numbers to 10 to 50 per day in early December? Will we just open up for Christmas and go into a third wave in the new year?
We should not pin our hopes on a Europe-wide solution – that will take too long and may not be what is needed. Instead Ireland has to lead the way in Europe – and it does not have to reinvent the wheel. The Australian states, which have independent health systems, and New Zealand have virtually eliminated coronavirus and we can do the same.
Once the number of new cases has fallen to small numbers we should have in place a whole series of measures, Zero Covid, to run the case numbers close to zero. The objective will be to slowly open up society, confident that we can keep new cases very low and isolate them. Robust, vigorous, professional test and trace will be a big part of that, with frequent testing of frontline staff, including teachers, transport staff, etc, but we must also deploy many other sensible controls, including much stronger legally binding quarantine rules for certain travellers. We will need to control our borders, and this means a massive political effort to coordinate with Northern Ireland. We do not need to shut the borders, just to devise measures that minimise the exchange of new cases – and that may include mandatory quarantine and isolation for some people. Among other things let’s adopt a system of coronavirus certificates like the World Health Organisation International Certificates of Vaccination, for everyone who must travel across our borders, for employment and business, or for compassionate reasons. In some cases these would be verified by weekly testing. We should establish industry-specific regulations – for example, airlines should set up their own testing protocols and the skies could be open again to those who carry coronavirus certificates and follow other special rules.
Will Nphet be able to develop an alternative policy for Ireland that will avoid lockdown three after another resurgence, with even more damage to our social, economic and political fabric? – Yours, etc,
DAVID McCONNELL,
Greystones, Co Wicklow.