Sir, – I have been living in Brescia in Italy for the past 18 years and as I did my regular ambulance shift I saw one of the world’s best healthcare systems on its knees.
Delays in communicating with the overloaded operations centre were up to 1½ hours, which was similar to the time spent in a queue of three ambulances to drop a patient off in hospital (I’d never seen a queue in eight years).
In the time where there could normally have been five call-outs, we were only able to manage two.
The numbers of infected have doubled since last week so you can only imagine the situation now!
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Brescia province, with a population a little less than that of Co Dublin, had one of the lowest rates of infection in Lombardy two weeks ago but now it is in contention for the most infected place in the world, having passed 4,000 cases and 500 deaths.
I am appealing to people in Ireland to take the current virus situation extremely seriously, as you are only two weeks behind us and most of the international graphs tell the same story. The incubation period of the virus is up to two weeks, so the new cases were in seemingly healthy people, who were possibly spreading the virus, last weekend.
Similarly, there are more than a thousand “healthy” people in Ireland walking around today without symptoms who will be infected next week.
It is probably a good idea to go as far as considering yourself as already being infected and behave accordingly, with your friends and family. You must isolate!
In fact, Lombardy is discovering to its cost this week, after more than 2,000 deaths and a soaring number of new cases, that not even a “lockdown” is effective unless it is a total curfew as in parts of China.
It must be remembered that the potential for infection in your family is not just the total number of people that your family members came into contact with over the past two weeks, but it also includes the total contacts that all those people had as well.
This is the risk you extend to elderly parents and relatives without thinking. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL ALLMAN,
Gussago,
Brescia, Italy.
Sir, – Thank you to Paul Cullen for encouraging debate on the new emergency coronavirus legislation (“The State will now be able to detain people and restrict travel. Should it do so?”, Analysis, March 21st)
The patriotism stirred up in recent days by the inspiring St Patrick’s Day speech of our Taoiseach may have led us to believe that questioning any such measures would be unpatriotic.
On the contrary, an open public discourse on this legislation and any future steps taken is vital in a democratic society.
In addition, I fear that Orla Muldoon's predictions ("Coronavirus: Focus on personal responsibility is foolhardy", Opinion & Analysis, March 11th) have already materialised.
Naming and shaming of particular groups of society not adhering to social distancing (or what is now referred to as physical distancing) in recent days have spread fear, encouraged hate and made us suspicious of each other.
A better way might be to acknowledge that this is difficult for everyone and maybe we need more help following guidance.
Those not following distancing advice are most likely not being selfish but could be scared, in denial or in ignorance. We must remember we are all, to one extent or another, in our own echo chamber. Not everyone reads the same news or the same social media feed. Not everyone understands what distancing is for or what it is about.
What would help, I feel, are more specific instructions from the Government on what each of us need and an explanation as to why.
Knowledge conquers fear. – Yours, etc,
Dr MELISSA O’NEILL,
Glounthaune,
Co Cork.
A chara, – It greatly upsets me that the Government even hesitated for one moment to assist workers in the present crisis as I remember well how quickly they helped the banks during the financial meltdown of a decade ago. – Yours, etc,
DEREK HENRY CARR,
Dublin 2.
A chara, – There is something seriously wrong when there are far more people walking down O’Connell Street in Limerick than in Times Square in New York. – Is mise,
E DILLON,
Farranshone,
Limerick.
Sir, – I want to express sincere gratitude to our teachers. Their response to the sudden school closure on March 12th came as if with much preparation.
Children and young adults arrived home from primary and secondary schools with clear instructions, weeks of prescribed work and locker-emptying mountains of books. Communication was calm, clear and concise.Within a further few days, virtual classrooms had been set up all around the country. By encouraging willing children and nervous parents to scale technology learning curves, newly tech-savvy teachers continued teaching. Thank you to our excellent teachers and principals for going beyond the call of duty to educate in these challenging times. – Yours, etc,
ENDA McDONNELL,
Templeogue,
Dublin 6W.