Dr. Kirsten Schaffer:

There are significant precautions related to aviation and travel. To my knowledge, having looked at epidemiology data since mandatory masks were introduced on aeroplanes, there have only been small numbers of outbreaks associated with flights. I contacted public health officials in Dublin yesterday and they told me that they are not aware of outbreaks associated with flights, because masks are mandatory.

We must have another discussion about travelling. It does not necessarily seem to be the flights that are the risk factor but more so what people do on holiday. If they go to bars and nightclubs when they are in Greece or somewhere then, yes, these are high-risk areas. If somebody travels to Italy, Greece or somewhere else to get some sun yet adhere to social distancing and wear masks, including on the plane, then the risk of acquiring Covid-19 could be lower than attending a house party in Ireland. That is why I must say that we must closely consider whether it makes sense to have a green list or instead have a red list where we flag countries that have high community transmission but actively follow-up with isolation and testing for travellers who come back from these countries. If we had the latter maybe we would get more buy-in from the population.