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There is “substantial risk associated with international travel” at this time, Medical Director Dr. Tony Holohan told the Oireachtas transportation committee today.
He told the committee that Irish experts consider that if passenger testing is introduced, it would still be “efficient” to order a five- to seven-day period of restricted movement, with a symptom check on day five.
However, Dr. Holohan cautioned that this approach can still miss up to 15 percent of imported cases.
In his opening statement, Dr Holohan told the committee that current efforts are “largely focused on suppressing the spread of the disease nationally” and that once the disease is back under control in Ireland, ” import risks will need to be managed very carefully ”.
Dr. Holohan said that once there are sustained low levels of domestic transmission, “the relative impact of imported cases is even greater,” noting data showing that at times during the summer travel-related cases represented about one quarter of the cases.
He said international travel “will represent a major risk area as the disease is brought under national control, and subsequently our goal is to keep disease activity suppressed and incidence rates low.”
With the government set to decide how an EU agreement on a common approach to travel will be implemented, Dr Holohan told the committee that such agreed strategies will be an “important step” as countries move from emergency management from disease to longer-term strategies. .
In doing so, it will be important for countries to adopt approaches that facilitate travel “while ensuring that those who need to travel do not pose additional risk to the general population.”
He told the committee that even when PCR testing, the most expensive and accurate form of Covid testing preferred by health chiefs, is used as part of a travel regimen, it is usually done in conjunction with other measures, such as bans on travel, mandatory quarantines. and border closures.
Dr Holohan echoed Hiqa’s recent findings that rapid antigen tests “are not suitable for screening asymptomatic people with unknown levels of disease, such as arriving passengers.”
He told the committee that while long-term travel restrictions are difficult, “we only need to look at the travel policies of countries that have achieved sustained low transmission rates, particularly countries in Asia, to see the importance of controlling imports.”
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