'Take decisive action now': Call for Government to revise Covid strategy or face fourth and even fifth wave 

THE Independent Scientific Advocacy Group is calling on the Government to revise Ireland’s Covid-19 strategy ahead of what it fears could be a fourth wave of the virus.

ISAG, an independent group of scientists and academics who advocate for a zero-Covid approach, stated that there was a high risk that Ireland was now entering its fourth wave of Covid-19, with new variants amplifying the possibility of a fifth wave.

The group has strongly criticised the Government’s travel quarantine measures, which it believes “will not prevent the introduction of new SARS-CoV-2 variants into the country”.

In a statement, ISAG said: “The importation of the B117 variant has already exacted a terrible toll in human lives and misery, and the P1 variant poses a similar or greater threat to the country over the coming months.”

The vaccine programme is impressive, the group said, but alone it would not “quickly nor comprehensively give sufficient immunity to the population in order to end the living with Covid lockdowns, or to prevent a fourth and maybe a fifth wave”.

ISAG said Ireland needed a strategy aimed at “aggressively suppressing the virus”, which it stated would allow for a safe and stable re-opening of society and the domestic economy sooner.

The group will set out its position at an online press conference and public meeting today.

“We are calling on the Irish Government to take decisive action now,” it said.