A LEADING medical expert has called for an all-island exit strategy from lockdown to avoid “further waves of infection and death”.
Dr Gabriel Scally, president of the Epidemiology and Public Health section of the Royal Society of Medicine, says it is vital that plans for Northern Ireland and the Republic are “compatible with, and supportive of, each other”.
[ Dr Gabriel Scally: Further waves of infection and death if north and south differOpens in new window ]
At yesterday’s Stormont briefing the executive said it is building a “path back to normality”. Writing in The Irish News today, Dr Scally, pictured, says there are two key areas where a common approach is vital – community testing and contact tracing; and jointly agreed controls at ports and airports.
“More than nine out of every 10 people in the world live in countries that have partially or completely closed their borders to visitors, and sometimes even to their own citizens, because of Covid-19,” he says.
“The UK and Ireland are part of a small and disparate group of countries, apparently including Mongolia, Mozambique and Mauritania, that maintain an open borders policy.
“It should be inconceivable that people could come through any port or airport in Ireland without passing through public health controls which would involve, as a minimum, taking temperatures and swabs for testing.”
Last night the Irish government said it was aware that 190 migrant workers had arrived into Dublin on a plane from Bulgaria this week to work as fruit pickers.
It said: “Anyone arriving from outside Ireland must comply with the Department of Health guidelines with regard to Covid-19 requirements and restrict movements for 14 days.”
Dr Scally says: “Full contact details and travel details should be required. “This would have to be accompanied by isolation facilities near at hand to which arrivals could be confined if necessary.
“Agreement on this will undoubtedly be difficult to achieve but it needs to be done on purely public health grounds and only for the duration of the crisis. It is an essential component of any comprehensive plan.”
He concludes: “Failure to develop an agreed approach could well result in further waves of infection and death. That is a risk well worth avoiding.”
In other developments:
- The family of west Belfast man John Burns, who died from Covid-19 in a nursing home, have told of their “horrendous” loss.
- Nearly one in 10 cases in the Republic are nurses.
- Northern Ireland had 18 virus deaths in hospital for the second day running, bringing the total to 176.
- Another 44 people died in the Republic, bringing the total number of deaths to 530.
- The Northern Ireland Statistical and Research Agency said 41 people had died from coronavirus in care homes and hospices, with another seven people dying at home.
- Eleven people have died in a Dublin nursing home.
- The British government announced the extension of the furlough scheme for an extra month.
