Incoming travellers leaving contact without a proper trace

Ireland’s four contact tracing centres are the busiest they’ve ever been, with cases having increased exponentially

At present, the initial data used by the roughly 800 tracers tasked with tracking passengers is provided by the airlines, but only after an index passenger with the virus has tested positive. Naturally, this can happen several days after their arrival. File image: Brian Lawless

For several weeks, Ireland has been sleepwalking into a contact tracing nightmare, and it’s a problem that could see the system overwhelmed once more at the worst possible time.

Contact tracing of incoming travellers has not been fit for purpose, and we are now seeing the impact of this in the unsettling growth of the Covid-19 case numbers.