Professor Paddy Mallon:

I have two views on the matter. When one looks at what countries around the world in the same position as Ireland have done with the resurgence of cases, the majority of resurgences are occurring because new infections are introduced to the country, either through people travelling into the country or perhaps through the movement of some goods. From that perspective, the importance of containing infections at the border becomes higher as the levels of community transmission drop off because that becomes the greatest threat of resurgence of cases. From a policymaker perspective, if one wants to maintain community transmission at a minimal level and is working on a series of complex interventions to do so, it is important to have robust screening methods at the point of entry into the country. What those methods are is open to debate. We could screen everyone or, as is being proposed and which might make more sense, we could judge our screening, restrictions and follow-ups based on the epidemiology of the outbreak in the country from which the person is coming. For example, at the moment the risk assessments would be very different for someone coming from New Zealand compared to someone coming from Texas. That might be a pragmatic approach, certainly within the European setting, to enable limited travel. At the same time, one should focus testing, follow-up restrictions and monitoring to get the most return for investment of time and expense.