76% won’t go abroad on holiday
MORE than three-quarters of Irish people will not fly abroad this summer in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The results of an exclusive Irish Mirror poll found 76.3% of respondents were willing to forgo the sunshine and stay at home.
Our Facebook survey asked: “Would you fly off on holidays this summer given Ryanair promises to be back in the air by July 1?”
By yesterday afternoon, around 5,800 people had voted against travelling while roughly 1,700 said they would be happy to get on a plane.
Fears of a second wave of infection and bringing the virus home from another country were among the chief concerns of those who voted to stay at home.
Reader Denis Caulfield said: “The trouble is if there’s a second wave of the virus in your destination, it could be back to square one. Stay home this year, the businesses here will need all the support they can get. There’s always next year.”
Moira Walsh added: “No, it’s been tough on everybody in lockdown at home but the thoughts of possibly being locked down away if a new surge developed would be awful. I also think it’s just too risky yet on planes and in the airport.”
Some respondents said they would prefer to support local hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions.
Kate O’sullivan vowed: “No way. I will holiday in Ireland and spend my money here.”
However, on the yes side readers cited wanting to visit family members abroad and having holidays already booked and some said they would travel if there was no quarantine period required.
John Paul O’sullivan responded: “Absolutely, can’t wait to get away.”
Katja Metelko added: “Yes, I would go to visit my family.”
Tania O’toole said: “Due to fly to Lithuania in August and praying all goes well and can go.”
And Rebecca Bex Lee added: “As long as you don’t have to go into isolation and things were open.”
Dr Paul Reid
THE head of the Health Service Executive has said a target of having Covid-19 testing and contact tracing done within three days will begin next week.
It will be introduced when the Government begins its first phase of relaxing restrictions on Monday.
Speaking at a briefing at University College Dublin, Paul Reid said the HSE has had “significant” challenges in testing, including issues around supplies of swabs and PPE.
Around 270,000 coronavirus tests have been carried out across Ireland, equating to about 5% of the population.
Mr Reid added: “We’ve consistently remained in the top tier of European countries in terms of the number of tests completed.
“On the Government’s roadmap and the five criteria, we are monitoring the disease and the capacity of the health system, contact tracing and how we are managing vulnerable groups.
“We are ahead of the laboratory tests to have the capacity to deliver 12,000 and we now have the ability to deliver over 15,000 tests per day. We set a target between two to three days for a swab to be completed, which has been met.”
He added 90% of positive cases will be completed from end to end in three days.