Could Ireland become the 'wayward child' of Europe on Covid response?

While the country was convulsed over the Clifden golf dinner controversy, the battle against Covid-19 has not been going as well as it should be.

The latest figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) show just how poorly Ireland is doing compared to most of our EU neighbours.

The UK was once Europe’s “bad boy” for tackling the virus, thanks to a faltering start, multiple U-turns and occasional injections of superfluous ideology. Sweden, meanwhile, was the continent’s “wayward child”, determined to go its own way by resisting lockdown and the closure of most schools and businesses.

Both countries suffered unnecessarily high numbers of deaths and were the subject of trenchant criticism over the months of peak pandemic. Now, in their own separate ways, they have managed to up their game, and trends in terms of deaths and cases are generally positive.

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Ireland, meanwhile, having achieved one of the lowest incidences in Europe in mid-summer, is now struggling to contain fresh outbreaks. So much so that the latest ECDC figures show our figures are higher than both the UK’s and Sweden’s. (The death rate in Sweden is 60 per cent higher than in Ireland.)

The incidence of the virus in Ireland is also higher than in Italy, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Greece, Finland, Hungary, Slovakia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Estonia, Iceland, Cyprus and Latvia.

Green list

These trends can change quickly over time, but Ireland’s decision in July to put in place a very short green list of countries, from which travel is possible without a need to quarantine, now looks like an act of hubris.

The policy of throttling overseas travel, which has had a devastating impact on the sector, meant imported cases fell to very low levels. Consequently, and in contrast to many EU states where returning holidaymakers have driven surges, travel could not be blamed for our second wave.

But if travel was not responsible, what was?

Initially, it was the outbreaks in meat processing plants, as we know. This was the equivalent of lightning hitting the same spot twice, given these environments had suffered outbreaks in the spring.

There was nothing terribly wrong with the odd case occurring in factories. But by the time anyone noticed what was going on, hundreds of staff had become infected, and the wider seeding of the virus in the community was well advanced.

We still don't have rapid testing alternatives, or the promised revamp of the testing system

This needn’t have happened. Testing capacity was being under-utilised throughout the summer, so wider testing of workers in the meat processing sector could have been arranged.

And, once again, our testing and contract tracing system was found wanting. Other countries that are experiencing surges at present are handling them better because, in general, they are carrying out more testing and/or doing it faster.

Continuity

The new wave of infections was getting under way as one government left and a new one arrived. Possibly, continuity was broken as new Ministers struggled to learn their briefs.

The outbreaks in meat plants are being brought under control, but the problem has moved on to other areas of life where people congregate. Worryingly, 30 per cent of cases are attributed to community transmission, meaning the source of infection is unknown.

We still don’t have rapid testing alternatives, or the promised revamp of the testing system, or even the Government’s new framework for dealing with Covid-19 realities over the coming year.

Yesterday, a private nursing home claimed it could deliver rapid test results in 15 minutes, and the gold-standard PCR test results in six hours, yet parents are being warned they will have to wait up to 72 hours for PCR results on schoolchildren, with entire families forced to self-isolate for this period.