QUARANTINE ALL ARRIVALS, WARN MEDICS
Half-hearted plan from Government ‘worse than useless’
PRESSURE mounted on the Government last night to introduce widescale quarantine travel restrictions, with scientists and politicians alike dismayed that quarantine will apply to only a tiny minority.
The scientific community has rubbished the plan of five days’ mandatory hotel quarantine for those who cannot produce a negative PCR Covid test upon arrival into the country.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin confirmed that the Cabinet will examine ‘other options’ when
they meet this week, but failed to commit to an approach that could prevent variants of the Covid-19 virus with the potential ability to evade vaccines from taking hold in Ireland.
‘We are looking at other options. We’re looking at other quarantine options for certain countries where, for example, South Africa or Brazil, and we’re looking at other issues as well. Just to say 1,000 came in, we’d say on Thursday... only one didn’t have a PCR negative test,’ he told Brendan O’Connor on RTÉ Radio 1 yesterday.
Fears over the new virus strains – particularly the South African and Brazilian variants – grew as it emerged that the British variant, which is already widespread here, is not just more infectious but potentially more deadly.
The debate intensified as it was confirmed there were 77 more coronavirus-related deaths reported by the Department of the Health yesterday, with 76 of these occurring this month. There have now been 2,947 Covid-19 related deaths since the outbreak began last year.
The Department of Health also reported 1,910 new cases of Covid-19, the first time since January 1 that the daily case numbers have been lower than 2,000.
Currently, people arriving here from abroad only need a negative Covid PCR test and to fill out a traveller locator form.
Writing in today’s Irish Mail on Sunday, Fine Gael MEP Frances Fitzgerald called
‘There is no time to lose anymore’
for the introduction of hotel quarantine, saying it was ‘inevitable that we need to take a stronger approach’ to people travelling in and out of EU member states.
‘Some ask, do we need to face this now? I believe we do. Let me be clear, there is no economy if Covid continues to be out of control. It’s beyond clear we have to move to hotel quarantine or the equivalent,’ the former justice minister writes.
Joining the calls for a more robust plan to halt the spread of the virus, public health expert Gabriel Scally warned that Ireland must close its ports and airports to nonple essential travel now to control the new variants of Covid-19. It’s the only safe thing to do,’ he said. Saying that the vaccine is not a silver bullet, he added: ‘We are most concerned about the new variants. It appears that the new variants are here and we suspect they are more infectious.
‘But there may also be other variants coming that will enable the virus to dodge the effects of the vaccine. With the emergence of these new variants.There is no time to lose anymore.’
Dr Tomás Ryan, associate professor in biochemistry in the department of neurosciences in Trinity College, told the MoS the measure of a single PCR test or the risk of a five-day quarantine for passengers could be ‘worse than useless’.
He said: ‘It’s nowhere near enough, because the negative PCR doesn’t mean you aren’t infected. In the first three days, you don’t turn up positive anyway. There is a risk that this measure will embolden people to not restrict movements. So peowho have a negative test may think they are fine when they should be self-isolating for two weeks, because they still could be positive. Not only is this measure insufficient, it could be worse than useless. The same would go for people thinking if they quarantine for five days then they would have freedom of movement and not self-isolate for the following nine days.
‘I think that it’s one thing to waste time justifying the failed message and policies of the past, but it’s completely unacceptable to be putting in policies now that can’t possibly work. I think it’s making a mockery out of all the efforts that citizens are putting in. We need the Government to get serious about travel quarantine.’
Dr Niall Conroy, an Irish public health consultant in Australia – which strictly enforces two weeks’ hotel quarantine – also called the proposal ‘a waste of time’.
He said: ‘Mandatory hotel quarantine is a huge undertaking and is only really worth it when it’s airtight. Otherwise, you’re throwing all of these resources at something that will have minimal impact.
‘A test before travel is a snapshot in time. It won’t find people who have recently been infected and have low levels of virus at the time of their test.
‘Five-day quarantine will detect many cases, but that’s not good enough. What governments have failed to learn from the last year is that there is no acceptable steady state, where we can live with a certain number of cases,’ he said.
‘Realistically, there are only two states of existence in a country like Ireland: you either eliminate community transmission or you get overwhelmed by the virus.
Dr Conroy said: ‘With pandemic strains of a respiratory virus, that’s just how it is in a non-immune population. Countries haven’t just been
‘Quarantine’s only worth it when it’s airtight’
able “to live with” 10 or 20 or 30 cases per day, because the infection numbers double so quickly. Ultimately, the proposed solution will reduce imported cases. But it won’t stop them.
‘If there is virus circulating in an open society, then you get outbreaks and a spike in the number of cases.
And then you’re in lockdown all over again.’
Public health expert Professor Anthony Staines of DCU said: ‘We now have a simple choice. We effectively quarantine people when they arrive here for two weeks in a controlled environment or security, or we go as we have been doing, from lockdown to lockdown. We will never get this virus under control when our borders are freely open.’
Sinn Féin frontbencher Louise O’Reilly warned that this week’s developments mean the Government plan is now out of date.
Ms O’Reilly said: ‘An Taoiseach absolutely needs to revise the original plan launched, as new variants and vaccine delays make this “plan” effectively obsolete.’
She said this included finally, ‘getting serious about travel restrictions.’
Also speaking on RTÉ radio, Social Democrat co-leader Róisín Shortall said that in the current national emergency, ‘we need mandatory quarantining’.
The requisitioning of hotels in Dublin and other cities is one of the options being looked at by the Department of Health.
The Government will decide on Tuesday what desperate measures it can take to stop the new strains of Covid entering Ireland.
The National Public Health Emergency Team, the Department of Health, the Department of Justice and the Department of An Taoiseach all agree that a form of quarantine using hotel spaces in Citywest, citycentre Dublin and other largely vacant premises is the best option. However, continuing negotiations with the EU, Britain and the North’s administration are vital.
A minister said: ‘The Taoiseach discussed the possibility of a European agreement on travel last week and we are currently in talks with the North about a “two-island solution”. Still, the obvious political problems are there.
‘We are reliant on Boris Johnson making a definitive move on travel restrictions in and out of Britain and on quarantine. When he does that, it will give Arlene Foster political cover to copy those moves and the whole jigsaw clicks into place.’
The MoS understands, the UK prime minister is set to compel visitors from high-risk Covid countries to quarantine for 10 days.
Sources said he favoured a more targeted approach, rather than making all air passengers quarantine.