Dr. Kirsten Schaffer:

I would like to reply quickly to this. I actually do not know any more than the committee does, because the information about where the cases originate is not available. I rang public health yesterday to inform myself more and to find out what the situation is at the moment. Currently, when a person is diagnosed with Covid-19, public health will ask him or her about the contacts that person has had in the preceding 48 hours. It will not ask where the individual thinks he or she has acquired the infection. It does not ask whether that person has been to a restaurant or attended a house party. It does not have that information and neither do I.

However, it is crucial that we start trying to collect such information so we can show the data and use them to state the reasons, for example, house parties with more than ten people attending are forbidden, and if it happens, then the Garda will be called and the house parties will be shut down. We need some data to argue with, and currently they are not there. I know from Germany, because such data are collected there, that increasing rates there are strongly associated with house parties and family gatherings, where people congregate and do not adhere to social distancing rules.

Second, a quick comment on mass testing, I do not think that is an option or an answer, because even at the moment, we have difficulties communicating test results in an efficient and timely manner. Even at the moment, we only test around 50% of close contacts at day seven, so I think we should focus on trying to improve our current strategy first and speed up our current identification and contact tracing of infected individuals before thinking about mass testing.