Christmas is no bargain if it means Lockdown 3
IT SAYS a lot about the state of the plan for easing Level 5 Covid restrictions in the run-up to Christmas that one of the best ideas about opening up safely comes from the boss of a mass market retail chain. Granted, George Weston, the boss of Penneys, has euro signs in his eyes when he suggests shops trade 24-7 in order to cut the risk of instore overcrowding and a repeat of last summer’s long queues.
But at least he’s put his head above the parapet with a view to how the retail game could be managed from early December when, fingers crossed, six weeks of quarantine will have worked their magic and brought the R rate down to virtually nothing.
It’s more than we have heard from NPHET or Health Minister Stephen Donnelly, whose approach seems to be to treat us like children and tell us that we might have a very merry Christmas if we behave nicely for the rest of the month.
On the recent Prime Time, Minister Donnelly promised a top-class test and trace regime before early December, while admitting that the antigen tests, another crucial weapon in the war against Covid, may not be the game-changer that was first envisaged.
ON TOP of that, chief clinical officer Dr Colm Henry says that rapid Covid-19 tests are ‘unlikely’ to be in place before Christmas for people hoping to travel home to Ireland. Why ever not? It must be relatively straightforward to organise rapid tests for screening in airports – surely it’s not the cost that’s prohibitive when there’s money for everything else?
Nor is there any agreement with the authorities in Northern Ireland for a unified approach to Covid, something that is essential if we are to live with the virus.
It seems that apart from the vital test and trace regime, the Government has learned very little from its failure this summer to prevent a second wave. And that unless it or NPHET has some great plan up their sleeve that they are not sharing, we will open on December 1 pretty much as we did last
summer while facing a future of yo-yoing between lockdown and normality until Pfizer rides to the rescue with a vaccine.
It’s no wonder then that most of us are dreaming of the usual n o n - whi t e Chri s t mas; o f extended family gathered hugger mugger around the dinner table, carousing in the pub, driving across the country to see great-aunt Maggie, a few days recovery from the bacchanalian excess in a fancy hotel. Bliss.
Then, as Covid levels spiral again, we plunge back into extended lockdown with even more diminished compliance.
But is saving Christmas really worth the price of becoming hermits again for the months of February and March? Not for me it isn’t. Perhaps my pal who is installing outdoor heating in her garden so that she can have extended family over for Christmas dinner is onto something. When the Government has no advice about how Christmas could be best celebrated under the cloud of Covid, she is thinking for herself. The last nine months show us that we must be
well prepared for
each phase of this pandemic, in everything from public health advice to test and trace.
AS WE approach the easing of lockdown we should know the answer to questions like whether we should continue wearing facemasks outside, even just as a psychological warning against complacency? Should there be a limit on our travel, or advice about seeing fewer people than usual during the festive season?
Will organisations like the GAA be prevented from encouraging the reckless free-for-alls that took place after the first lockdown? And will hospitals operate as usual, with normal cancer screening services and improved psychiatric and counselling for those suffering from isolation?
It’s not too early for NPHET or the Government to talk about Christmas. Or about all that will be done to prevent a third lockdown in February. The last thing we want is to spend the first anniversary of coronavirus’s arrival in Ireland sitting on the sofa, staring at the same four walls.