Ireland’s response to Covid is the second lightest in the world, an analysis of 185 countries has found.
Ongoing tracking of the severity of government measures by the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University puts Ireland above only Mongolia in terms of current restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
There were growing calls last week for the government to reintroduce some public health restrictions, such as mask-wearing on public transport, following a surge in hospital cases, which stood at 1,452 yesterday. This was up from 610 in late February.
Just a year ago, Ireland had the eighth most stringent lockdown in the world, according to a database compiled by the Blavatnik School of Government. It showed that for 118 of 145 days before March last year, Ireland scored more than 80 out of 100 for the severity of its lockdown measures.
The scores were based on 19 metrics that include requirements for face coverings, school and business closures, travel restrictions, and economic supports. Ireland had a score of 84.26, with only Greece, on 88.9, and the United Kingdom, on 87.96, being more stringent.
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The HSE has said that half or more of the positive cases now in hospital are actually receiving treatment for other conditions, and there has been a smaller increase in the number of patients in intensive care with 51 recorded yesterday, which is up from 37 on March 11.
Hospitals have been forced to cancel thousands of outpatient appointments in the past week due to the rise in cases and because of the large number of staff off work with the
Luke O’Neill, a Trinity College Dublin immunologist, is among those who have called for the reintroduction of mandatory mask-wearing on public transport to help stem the rise of the highly infectious BA.2 variant of the Omicron mutation.
The regulation requiring this expired on February 28. The National Bus and Rail Union supports the calls.
Gerald Barry, a virologist in University College Dublin, tweeted on Friday that Ireland’s advice on testing and isolating for different age groups showed the “policy is clearly to let the virus move through the population, on the assumption that most won’t end up in hospital”.
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The government and public health officials have said there are no plans to reintroduce restrictions despite the current wave, which Leo Varadkar, the tanaiste, said was “not a cause for panic” because of Ireland’s high levels of vaccination.
Emily Cameron-Blake, a researcher with the Oxford Covid-19 Government Response Tracker, said that Ireland got a low score on the stringency index after an examination of policies and rules across nine areas.
“At the moment, there are no closure and containment measures in place,” she said.
“Ireland has returned to a pure state of providing only guidance and loose recommendations for people to protect themselves. This implies there is really only guidance in place now, not a formal public health campaign against Covid-19. Many countries, even while lifting most domestic restrictions, have maintained international restrictions, but Ireland does not even have these in place any more.”
Ireland has a lower stringency score than the UK because Wales has kept some mask requirements for shops and schools, although these will be lifted tomorrow.
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The index shows Germany and Italy have the highest scores in Europe for the stringency of their responses to Covid. Both require the use of FFP2 masks in many areas, while Italy still requires passengers on public transport and flights to present a Covid green pass. Both countries have experienced a new wave of cases in the past month.
Colman Noctor, a child and adolescent psychotherapist, warned that there would be mental health impacts if the government reintroduced restrictions in Ireland. He said he had noticed “real hope and joy” returning to children and young people and reintroducing them would be a “real kick in the guts”.
“If the public health advice says it has to happen, then OK, but it is not cost-neutral,” Noctor said. “There is no antigen test for anxiety. Children and young people have suffered greatly due to the restrictions over the last two years. They do not do well with massive changes, and if they see masks coming back I would just worry about their hope levels.
“The mental health impact is never measured in terms of introducing pods, bubbles, masks or other restrictions. I really worry about hopelessness,” he said. “If there is a cost-benefit analysis in terms of introducing more restrictions, the mental health aspect is never measured. There is a cost to mask-wearing and all the mitigations and as we enter year three of this, there is only so much resilience children can have.”
