Lock-down is the right call but there are still issues with our virus response

IT was the news we were all dreading but the news that Ireland was going back i nto l ock- down felt i nevitable l ong before Micheál Martin addressed the nation. Even without the new mutated and more virulent strain of Covid-19 case had started creeping up and most people had already resigned themselves to an even bleaker January than usual.

The news that our long awaited holiday celebrations, earned though months of sacrifice – were to be severely curtailed was incredibly disappointing but it was the right call.

The surge in cases has, according to the Taoiseach, far exceeded even the worst fears of medical experts, and we can expect to see massive case numbers over the next fortnight.

However bad they get they would have been much worse if the Government hadn’t pulled the plug on New Year celebrations.

The new case numbers are likely to be huge and frightening in the coming days but thanks to the Government’s decision they should, hopefully, begin to abate fairly quickly.

Then it will be down to everyone of us to knuckle down for a difficult few months. The start of the year – never the most pleasant of times – will be tough, there’s no point sugar coating it, but better times are ahead.

While it will take several months to have a noticeable impact the vaccination programme is a game changer and it will help bring an end to this seemingly endless misery.

We will see and hold our loved ones again and it will happen sooner than we think. That’s the thought and hope we must hold on to for the next few months. This spring will bring more hope than any for generations.

For all that, there is more that Ireland and specifically the Government can do to bring the crisis to an end as soon as possible.

While schools are unlikely to be shut – the Government is utterly determined to keep them open and has staked its very survival on it – they are proven hotbeds of the virus and more stringent restrictions should be considered.

The real problem in Ireland is our grossly inefficient and utterly deficient case tracing system.

In countries and areas that have managed to control the virus – such as New Zealand and Hong Kong – case tracing has proved one of the most important and most effective tools.

Despite mountains of evidence to show just how important tracing is two successive Government and the HSE have completely failed to set up an adequate system here.

There have been countless promises that hundreds of tracing staff would be hired we have seen no evidence of that happening.

Instead we’ve have stories from every corner of Ireland where people who volunteered and were trained to be case tracers have never again been contacted by the HSE.

We’ve been told whatever is needed, the resources are there. When it comes to case tracing it certainly doesn’t feel like it.

Then there’s the story from a Dublin hairdresser who was told, by a case tracer, that her staff were not considered close contacts of a Covid positive customer they had spent three and a half hours with. That’s not only astonishing it’s frightening.