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A leading epidemiologist has called for an all-island approach to the pandemic, saying \u201cyou could bet your life\u201d one would be used if the disease affected animals.<\/p>\nA leading epidemiologist has called for an all-island approach to the pandemic, saying \u201cyou could bet your life\u201d one would be used if the disease affected animals.<\/p>\n
Calls for a singular approach in how the governments in Belfast and Dublin respond to the crisis are growing after both jurisdictions saw record numbers of cases this week.<\/p>\n
The Republic of Ireland saw 1,205 new cases \u2013 its highest daily increase \u2013 on Thursday, while Northern Ireland counted 763 new cases.<\/p>\n
NI saw its highest number of daily cases yet on Wednesday (1,217).<\/p>\n
Seven further deaths were also recorded across the island on Thursday, with three in the Republic and four in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
Irish chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan described an 82% increase in cases in a week, from 3,514 to 6,382 cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe number of hospitalizations are increasing faster than the exponential growth modelling predicted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis indicates a rapidly deteriorating disease trajectory nationally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Gabriel Scally, president of epidemiology and public health at the Royal Society of Medicine, blasted the \u201cridiculous situation\u201d on this island, and said it was \u201cdisturbing\u201d a joint approach was not being taken.<\/p>\n
Dr Scally, who was born in Belfast, said: \u201cIf this was an animal disease affecting sheep or chicken or cattle, you could bet your life that there would be an integrated approach North and South.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd a huge amount of joint working and joint testing. That is not happening. It\u2019s very, very disturbing.\u201d<\/p>\n
He told RTE\u2019s Morning Ireland: \u201cSeveral people from the very beginning, myself included, said the best way of dealing with this was on an all-island basis. That has never happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt needs to be a properly integrated effort North and South.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Scally criticized the \u201csecrecy\u201d around the testing and tracking in Northern Ireland and suggested that many cases were not being found.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks like they\u2019re not doing the job of contact tracing properly and breaking those chains of transmission,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ireland\u2019s foreign minister Simon Coveney later agreed that an all-island approach had worked in the past for animal diseases.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is right. Gabriel Scally talks a lot of sense when he\u2019s on your program,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But he added that Covid is \u201cfar more complicated\u201d.<\/p>\n
The governments in Dublin and Belfast are regularly in touch, he said, as are the two chief medical officers.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cOn the cross-border issue, there is discussion in terms of tracing cross border. We now have a Covid app in both North and South that talks to each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are doing a number of things on a cross-border basis, but we need to do more. Our Government is very anxious to do more \u2013 to try to have a collective approach both North and South.\u201d<\/p>\n
The row comes amid a new outright ban across the Republic on visiting other houses, with level four restrictions being introduced in the border counties.<\/p>\n
They will come into force from midnight on Thursday to apply until November 10.<\/p>\n
Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said the picture emerging in Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan is \u201cvery worrying\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the national figure of cases per 100,000 in the last 14 days was 190.7, but in Monaghan it was 360, in Donegal it was 353 and in Cavan it was 571.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe implications for local hospitals and public health in these areas is obvious and very serious, so too is the need for immediate escalation in restrictions in those three counties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The announcement came after the Northern Ireland Executive introduced a tough new \u201ccircuit breaker\u201d lockdown for four weeks after a record 1,217 cases were reported on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The new restrictions will see schools close for two weeks \u2013 while pubs, restaurants and non-essential retail will shut for four.<\/p>\n