Dr. Tony Holohan:

In the interests of time, I will not supplement Mr. Breslin's answers too much but I will say that testing and tracing should not be seen in isolation; it should be seen as part of a set of public health advice. Individual members of the public can help shorten the time to diagnosis by coming earlier. In addition to the enhancements that have been made to testing and tracing, we are advising individuals who are experiencing cold and flu-like symptoms not to put off the phone call to the doctor to see how they are until tomorrow but to make contact early. That gives us a greater chance, as do the improvements Mr. Breslin has outlined.

I could speak about the overall strategy at some length but I am conscious of the committee's time. Comparisons have been made to a number of different countries. With regard to New Zealand, western Europe has been the epicentre of this infection; New Zealand is on the other side of the world.

It is 2,500 miles from the nearest landmass. It is not part of a political, economic legal, social, cultural union with a number of other countries, like Ireland is. Direct comparisons - I am not suggesting the Deputy is making them - that others have made are not entirely valid. The spread of infection to that part of the world was a much later event and much smaller. They did take decisive action as I believe we did in this country. However, we were very close to the epicentre of this infection in a way that New Zealand simply is not.

Regarding Sweden, much has been said about mortality. I do not want to point unduly at comparisons between different countries, but we have to be sure we are counting the same things. We think in terms of direct comparisons. Admissions to intensive care are probably a more reliable measure of the burden of infection. Sweden has had a much bigger challenge than this country on that measure. When I checked yesterday it had almost 400 people in intensive care. If we adjusted for population that would be the equivalent of almost 200 people in intensive care here; we have 50.