Second Covid-19 wave a ‘real risk’

There is a real risk that Ireland will shortly be hit by a second wave of Covid-19, according to Mullingar native and Professor of Experimental Immunology at Trinity College Dublin, Kingston Mills.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, Professor Mills said that there had been a “worrying” increase in the number of confirmed cases of the virus in the last week, which he attributes to people not adhering to physical distancing guidelines in pubs and parties and an increase in international travel.

Although visitors to Ireland are being advised to quarantine for two weeks on arrival, Prof Mills says that unless it is made mandatory, many people will fail to do so.

“It’s very difficult to see how people can come on a two-week holiday and not go to restaurants or pubs or hotels. I don’t know how it is going to work. I think that a lot of people aren’t isolating when they come. The problem is that it is not a legal requirement, it is a recommendation. Everyone is not doing it and it is not working as a mechanism of preventing the importation of the virus again,” he said.

If Ireland is to avoid a second wave, Prof Mills says that travel from countries where the virus is still not under control should be restricted.

“The European Union has made recommendations in relation to certain countries and one of them was that we shouldn’t have travel from the US. We are going against the European recommendation by allowing flights into Ireland from the US now.

“The US is probably one of the worst countries apart from some of the South American countries right now. The US is a particular problem. I did speak about limiting flights around February and March when the issues started with people travelling from northern Italy. People initially thought that it was unnecessary but quickly bought into it. There is a real risk that it may happen again.

“We have done a fantastic job in Ireland getting the numbers down at a huge cost financially and to people’s lives. We really don’t want to have to go back to where we were and have to go back into lockdown.

“Even Australia, which had almost eliminated the virus, has had to introduce lockdown again for the whole state of Victoria. Israel had controlled it effectively early on and now they are getting a huge resurgence of cases and having to go back into lockdown. Do we want to have that here? I certainly don’t think that we do.”

Whether we have to re-enter lockdown will depend on people’s behaviour over the coming weeks, Professor Mills says. The increase in the number of Covid cases in people under 25 in the last month is of particular concern, especially with all pubs currently scheduled to reopen on July 20.

“The virus doesn’t cause huge mortality in people under 25 but they can pass it on to older and more vulnerable people. That’s the real issue here. They [under 25s] may not die from the infection, but they can certainly pass it on to someone who can die from it.

“I am not scaremongering. I am simply saying that by taking appropriate action now and not entering a situation where you are allowing the spread of it or importing it, then we can reduce it to close to zero and keep it there,” he said.

Professor Mills and his colleagues in Trinity College’s School of Biomedical Sciences have been allocated funding of almost €5m by Science Foundation Ireland for Covid-19 research, as well as a €2.4m donation from Allied Irish Banks. This will be used to fund a variety of Covid-19 related studies, including the design of a vaccine.

Professor Mills says that scientists have made “tremendous” progress when it comes to the creation of a Covid-19 vaccine and that one could be available some time next year.