Irish Examiner view: Time to rally in final push to beat virus

Not the year-end we had planned as we head back into level 5 lockdown

 

It is not the year-end that we had hoped for. Yesterday, the Cabinet met to return the country to full level 5 lockdown as the Republic recorded the highest number of daily new cases of Covid-19 since the pandemic began. 

Some 1,718 new cases were recorded yesterday, exceeding the previous day’s record of 1,546, and prompting fears that our inadequately-resourced health service will be overwhelmed in the new year.

There were also warnings that the demographic of patients prone to infection is now much wider, with all age groups in danger of contracting the virus that has been the wearying and constant focus of a year without parallel in recent times.

Some will be quick today to criticise the Government for failing to heed Nphet’s advice earlier this month. They will, with some justification, argue that stricter restrictions — or the introduction of a ‘circuit breaker’ to use the latest addition to our pandemic vocabulary — would have saved us the pain of a further level 5 lockdown now.

On the other hand, there will be just as many claiming the opposite, making the case that festive restrictions should have been eased further to save jobs in many hard-hit sectors, from hospitality and retail to entertainment and tourism.

They are not wrong when they predict that some of the non-essential businesses that will be forced to close will simply not reopen when this third national shutdown is over.

It is exceptionally hard for those who have lost their livelihoods and with them, in some cases, the prospect of new jobs in the future. However, if you balance job losses — devastating though they are — against the experience of the 2,213 families who have lost loved ones to a virus that was practically unknown this time last year, the path ahead is much clearer.

Our elderly have been particularly vulnerable, but the pattern of those affected is starting to change. 

GPs have warned that the profile of those at risk is now pan-generational, from babies to adults. We must take note, too, of the emergence of a new more contagious variant of Covid-19.

Those who underestimate the illness and its severity might be shaken out of complacency by the rising numbers of those suffering from long Covid, a condition with a wide range of symptoms that can last for months after the initial coronavirus infection has passed.

Last March, then-taoiseach Leo Varadkar rallied the nation in his St Patrick’s Day address when he said that, we, as a nation, would get through this. 

As a new year is about to dawn, it’s important to remember how much progress we have made since then. The first vaccines were administered on Tuesday, offering much-needed hope for 2021.

We will get there but, as Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Michael McGrath has said, the last part of the journey can be the most difficult and treacherous.

There is, however, reason to hope that we are, at least, on the last leg. Let’s rally together now with one heart to get this virus under control.