Test and trace system ‘bad from start’
IRELAND’S testing, tracing and isolating system for Covid-19 has been ‘inadequate since the beginning’ and requires significant investment, a leading health expert has said.
This warning comes as 190 new cases were confirmed yesterday and the Government imposed a new wave of restrictions to try and limit the spread of the virus.
Associate Professor at Trinity’s School of Biochemistry and Immunology Tomás Ryan told Newstalk Breakfast that the test-trace-isolate system was ‘never fast enough’ to prevent asymptomatic or presymptomatic spread of the virus, and ‘over the last two weeks it has got slower, which is evidence that it cannot cope under stress’.
He said significant investment is needed ‘on a couple of fronts’ to deal with the virus but ‘principally’ in the test, trace and isolate infrastructure. ‘The crucial mechanism in the hands of the State, not in the hands of teenagers misbehaving, not in the hands of publicans, is the test-trace-isolate infrastructure. This has been inadequate since the beginning. It never got built up to reasonable levels,’ he said.
‘No good strategy is going to be workable until pressure is put on the Government and the HSE to deliver proper testing and tracing,’ said Prof. Ryan, adding that ‘what we are doing is not working, and it hasn’t really been working for at least a few weeks now. So we need to make a change’.
He said he would favour an elimination approach in dealing with the virus, to drive the case numbers down to zero, rather than living with it until a vaccine is created.
He said the ‘living with the virus approach’ means ‘living with restrictions’, adding: ‘We need to figure out what those workable restrictions are and we need to be honest about the areas of society that are going to have to continue to struggle.’
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly told last night’s Covid briefing that they are ramping up testing and tracing in key settings.