COVID THREAT DEMANDS DEAL IS DONE OVER THE BORDER

THE Government’s Living with Covid strategy was an ad hoc attempt to meet a lethal hidden threat. The risk it posed, how it might be managed, and whether there was the remotest prospect of a vaccine were all unknowable. By now the grievous toll of the pandemic is carved into our hearts. The tragic loss of life cannot be quantified for families and communities.

The staggering financial sums, though formida- ble, will eventually be reckoned with.

The psychological drain and exhaustion for all frontline workers speaks to a superhuman effort.

That is why so many now feel the tweaks made to the Government’s plans are inadequate.

The month of February will now also to be lost to lockdown. The Government has hit on the date of March 5 to review Level 5 restrictions.

The official line is: The State has no choice. The virus is still winding the clock forward.

But the awkward question remains: had we been more proactive rather than responding after the fact, might we not be in a better place? Concerns focus on travel and the Border. Even under new regulations, only people arriving without a negative Covid-19 test – and arrivals from Brazil and South Africa – face a mandatory 14-day quarantine. Demands for this to apply to all passengers have been ignored again.

A quarantine proposal – from the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) – was brought before Cabinet last May only to be thrown out. The reasons for its dismissal were predictable: the Border, fears for EU solidarity and civil liberties issues. So what of the new Government plans?

We are told “discussions” will continue with Stormont and the UK generally on aligning travel policies.

It also plans to conclude data-sharing arrangements with the Northern Ireland Executive. This is hardly commensurate with the growing menace of newer, stronger variants.

The protracted pace of vaccinations underlines why we must ramp up all our defences.

Given all we have sacrificed to date, if a deal on the Border cannot be done to save people’s lives, people will despair.

Last March, Dr Fergal Hickey, spokesperson for the Irish Association of Emergency Medicine, said it is illogical on a small island like Ireland to have two different approaches.

Citing the co-ordinated approach used to tackle foot and mouth disease, he pointed out: We did it for animals, we should do it now for humans.

Last year, Dr Gabriel Scally also noted how the UK and Ireland remained part of a small and disparate group of countries, apparently including Mongolia, Mozambique and Mauritania, that maintain an open borders policy.

Yesterday, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said its borders will remain closed for most of this year amid uncertainty over the rollout of vaccines. In the words of Alfred Adler: “Life happens at the level of events, not of words.”

In the war to outwit the virus, we need all the firepower we can get.

It is illogical on a small island like Ireland to have two different approaches