“Another lockdown would be unsustainable”

THE Oireachtas Special Committee on Covid-19 Response, which is chaired by Clare TD Michael McNamara, has sought changes to the current testing and contact tracing system.

In its interim testing and tracing report, it made 22 recommendations including temperature screening of all entrants to the State from overseas and regular testing of healthcare workers, aimed at identifying asymptomatic carriers of the virus.

Chairman of the Committee, Deputy Michael McNamara, said: “The Committee understands that the system that was put in place in March was done in a hurry and a lot of contingency measures had to be taken given the risk of a pandemic sweeping the State. Because of the efforts of all our people, those measures were not needed, but what became clear to the Committee is that another lockdown would be unsustainable. Testing and contact tracing will allow the State to live with and treat outbreaks of Covid as they arise.”

The Committee report welcomes the work of the HSE to design a new test and trace service model and states that the detail of this plan will be crucial to public health outcomes.

It warns that the potential for hospital overcrowding to negatively impact on virus containment is a serious risk. The report says this issue needs to be addressed within the HSE’s test and trace plan, and that any investment which could help to resolve the issue should be deployed.

The report also warns the test and trace system is facing two “severe stress tests” in the coming months: travel into and within the State, and flu season.

Deputy McNamara warned: “We will need a system that has capacity to deal with a sudden surge in demand which will happen if we get a flu epidemic in the Autumn given the overlap in symptoms between the flu and Covid-19 and our already overcrowded hospitals and A&E Departments.”