Comment: What a difference a week makes

On Tuesday of last week, as the Cabinet deliberated over yesterday's (Monday’s) planned opening of indoor dining, and confusion reigned over Confirmation and Communion ceremonies, RTE Radio’s ‘News at One’ visited Navan to gauge the reaction of the hospitality providers to the possibility of vaccination passes being a ticket to enter a pub or restaurant.

What a difference a week makes. This week, the HSE has announced a walk-in testing clinic for Navan as the Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus has taken hold in the town, anecdotally thanks to a group of people who travelled across the border to Northern Ireland, and brought it home with them.

It was always going to be easier to shut down the country than to open it up again, and with the Delta variant proving much more transmissible to previous forms of the virus, the race to vaccinate as many as possible has been stepped up a gear.

Over half the adult population in Ireland is now fully vaccinated against Covid-19, Health Service Executive chief executive Paul Reid says, and this week people in the 30 to 34 age group can register for an mRNA vaccine on the HSE vaccination portal, with pharmacies also reporting a huge demand amongst younger cohort of 18 to 34 for one-shot vaccines.

While there are concerns amongst older groups about a delay in getting their second vaccine, 69 per cent of adults have received one dose.

In Britain, the prime minister has thrown caution to the wind, and has decided to use the summer holidays as a "firebreak" to lift all remaining social distancing rules and mask wearing, despite predictions from scientists that it will cause a new rise in hospital admissions and deaths. The Welsh, Scottish and Northern Ireland authorities have not followed suit, while transmissions and travel across the Irish border are creating concerns, especially along the Donegal-Derry border.

Boris Johnson’s decision to open up just as a huge wave of cases is crashing across England is based on "a huge wall of immunity" provided by their vaccination programme, and the fact that an increase in cases is not leading to an increase in hospitalisations. However, Monday’s figure of 27,000 was double the figure of 10 days ago, and half the anticipated figure of 19th July, Johnson’s so-called ‘Freedom Day’.

Here, the Government is being much more tempered in its approach, as it attempts to hold on to the progress made so far, while at the same time trying to ensure that the rest of the economy and society can advance over the summer. Its communication hasn’t always been the best - the Tanaiste’s remarks on Confirmations an example – and it is a much more difficult to manage an emergency when there are three parties rather than one in power, with parliamentary party meetings leaking like a sieve.

This week’s developments in Navan show just how fragile the entire situation is at present, and with 19th July fast approaching, when international travel is set to re-open, and the hospitality industry hoping to open indoors, all the stakeholders have difficult decisions to make. Let’s hope they are only for the short-term.

This Leader piece was first published in Tuesday's paper.