A leading public health expert has warned against the lifting of travel restrictions here in a bid to help prevent a second wave of Covid-19 deaths.
Dr Gabriel Scally, president of epidemiology and public health at the Royal Society of Medicine in London said quarantine for two weeks on arrival into the country should not be scrapped next week.
A State appointed Aviation taskforce said in an Interim Report on Tuesday that such measures should be lifted on July 1.
Dr Scally said: “I don’t think that should happen.
“I doubt if very many people outside the aviation industry would think that is a sensible thing to do.
"We need to keep up the barriers at the moment.
“I think the way forward is first of all to have a zero Covid island of Ireland, and then to make the travel links with other places with a similarly good situation.
“This is a public health emergency and I very strongly feel public health concerns have to trump airline worries."
Dr Scally told RTE's Sarah McInerney that air travel is what got Covid-19 into Ireland so the safest way to prevent a second surge is to avoid importing cases.
He said: “Of course people can come, but there has to be a satisfactory quarantine arrangements to make sure we are not importing cases.
“That’s how it got here in the first place. It was imported by air.
“We don’t need new cases when things are going really well domestically. We don’t need a second wave.”
However, Dr Scally, who conducted the scoping inquiry into CervicalCheck said the concept of so called “air bridges” with countries who have controlled the virus would be a good idea.
But said Covid-19 was not under control in countries with which Ireland traditionally has strong air travel links, such as the UK and America.
While the rise in cases globally is “very, very worrying indeed.”
