How is international media reporting Ireland's dramatic Covid-19 surge that has taken it from one of the lightest-affected in Europe to a global hotspot in a matter of weeks?
Always interesting to see an international perspective.
A press review:
"Ireland is the country in the world where the epidemic is spreading the fastest, ahead of the Czechia and the United Kingdom," reports Belgium's @RTBFinfortbf.be/info/societe/d…
"It must be said that the Irish situation is in fact much more serious: if in the United Kingdom, infections have increased by 50% in one week, in Ireland, they have quadrupled!" @RTBFinfo adds
"The Irish lockdown miracle was an illusion" writes @osbcri of Germany's NTV. "Europe looked fascinated at the supposed miracle of the republic, the Irish strategy seemed to be working... but the disillusionment came on Boxing Day." amp.n-tv.de/panorama/Das-i…
"Ireland now has an extraordinarily high seven-day incidence of around 503.6. For comparison: In Germany this value is around 136.5," @obscri adds
"The number of Covid cases in Ireland is rising so fast that the country has the highest infection rate in Europe since Friday," reports @estermeerman. "Several hospitals have put in place emergency plans to deal with the influx of patients." nrc.nl/nieuws/2021/01…
"The Coronavirus is once again on the rise in Ireland. And that is not because of the new 'British' mutation, but because of a slightly too cozy Christmas. Irish people often visited each other," Dutch outlet @metro reports metronieuws.nl/in-het-nieuws/…
"Just a few weeks ago, Ireland had one of the lowest infection rates in Europe. However, since the government eased restrictions before Christmas, the five-day average has more than tripled in the past two weeks" reports Germany's @tagesschautagesschau.de/ausland/irland…
"Martin’s government relaxed restrictions last month, a tactic that may have contributed to one of the world’s highest contagion rates in recent days... his administration has also come under fire for the vaccination program’s slow pace," reports @businessbloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Covid "rampant in Ireland" primarily due to socialising at Christmas, not new variant, reports @floorbouma in Dutch paper NRC. "According to experts, these figures only show the tip of the iceberg and the actual size of the outbreak is much larger." nrc.nl/nieuws/2021/01…
China's Xinhua lays out restrictions.
"The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ireland topped 100,000 as the country reported a record high... Under the Level-5 restrictions, people are not allowed to travel more than 5 kilometers away from home" xinhuanet.com/english/2021-0…
Taiwan's United Daily News reports record cases in Ireland as part of a "severe European epidemic". "The Irish government announced today that schools will remain closed in January due to a wave of "infection tsunami" that may overwhelm" health services udn.com/news/story/120…
"Increased socialising around Christmas: and not a new COVID-19 variant: has driven Ireland's rapid transformation from having the lowest infection rate in the European Union to the fastest rate of deterioration," reports @ChannelNewsAsiachannelnewsasia.com/news/world/iri…
Japan's @jijicom reports Taoiseach Micheál Martin announcing he will "lock down the whole country".
"A highly contagious mutation that is prevalent in the neighboring UK is spreading throughout the country," the news agency reports jiji.com/jc/article?k=2…
"Martin warned that the new strain of Corona virus is spreading at a rate that exceeded the most pessimistic models available," reports Egypt's @masrawy, saying Ireland is returning to "complete lockdown" masrawy.com/news/news_publ…
Google fights my attempts to find results in many locations and languages based on its assumptions about what I want to see so please do ping me any interesting coverage I don't have here.
A bit of a cursed piece from Italy's Europa Today from December 18 just as things began to go south... "From Berlin to Rome through Amsterdam, we are preparing for a Christmas lockdown, while in Dublin even the gyms are reopening" europa.today.it/attualita/irla…
In Uruguay, @luisarmando930 reports "The increase in contacts during Christmas and the fact that the new variant is more contagious has placed the number of daily infections above 5,000, compared to just over 200 registered a month ago" h/t @rivasmjradiomontecarlo.com.uy/2021/01/06/nac…
United Arab Emirates: "Ireland had one of the lowest infection rates in Europe a few weeks ago, but its 7-day average has tripled over the past 14 days to 1,034 cases following an easing of public health measures ahead of Christmas" - Reuters h/t @yerrayakhaleejtimes.com/coronavirus-pa…
Romania: "Ireland announced the the strictest Covid-19 restrictions since early last year following a "tsunami" of infections caused by the new strain that raised hospitalisations to a record level with fears the health system will be overwhelmed" @rivasmjg4media.ro/irlanda-a-anun…
The Netherlands is also next door to Britain, so the big question for them is: 'is this new variant going to hit us next and cause the same thing?'
Explanation by @President_MU et al that the surge is not due to the mutation therefore given high importance
Ireland has climbed to be ranked 2nd in the world out of 189 countries in a United Nations index measuring longevity education and wealth.
What's behind the country's rapid climb since the index was launched in 1990? I spoke to lead author @pedrotconceicaoirishtimes.com/news/ireland/i…
A few interesting things in summary:
- it's more to do with a rapid increase in average education than it is with economic growth, though that is significant (Ireland's economy basically doubled)
- the economic growth aspect is not inflated by the presence of multinationals in Ireland. The index uses a different measure to GDP (GNI) specifically to avoid that distortion
Irish news:
- 'on foot of'
- traffic at the Red Cow roundabout
- 12 jobs announced for Longford
- controversy over the handling of health/justice/Tusla scandal
- car accident, reported on the national hourly news bulletin
- 'senior hurling'
- Liveline drama fuels resignation
Italian news
- Pope Francis appeals for compassion for refugees
- Berlusconi scende in campo
- unions protest layoff terms in struggling industry
- right-wing positions to be powerbroker after next election
- Alitalia needs bailout
- Berlusconi scende in campo
Irish news (Northern edition):
- deadlock in Stormont
- talented local celebrated
- controversy over the behaviour of students in the Holylands
- minor matter becomes proxy sectarian row on call-in radio show
A few @PassportIrish episodes from the past year that seem especially relevant:
Rise of the right: expert on the far right @CasMudde explains the potential for such movements in Ireland and what we can learn from the experience of other countries (February)patreon.com/posts/33599639
Journalist @samirashackle discusses her reporting digging into the collapse of attempts to investigate alleged war crimes in Iraq and the movement in favour of British military impunity patreon.com/posts/29677129
(We also touched on this in our discussion of the backlash against truth and justice efforts and the re-politicisation of Northern Ireland in right-wing British politics during the Brexit process in our episode on Collusion) theirishpassport.com/podcast/s3-epi…
Ireland's Covid-19 approach has attracted international praise just as it comes under criticism at home: featured approvingly on the Dutch equivalent of SNL and @berlingske reporting it "transparent, predictable and an obvious inspiration for Denmark" irishtimes.com/news/health/ir…
You can behold the odd sight of a Merrion Street PDF broadcast to Dutch television viewers at 11:00 here as comedian presenter @arjenlubach criticises PM Mark Rutte and explains the Irish 5-phase system. "How nice would it be to make a super clear plan.."
Lubach perceptively hit the nail on the head by pointing out that the weakness in the system is that someone will still have to announce to the nation "we are going to stage X", and politicians won't want to. He suggested an automatic trigger if cases rise above set levels.
Ireland typically runs a hospital bed occupancy level of 95%, and over 100% in the winter, with people lying in corridors. Our health system would be the quickest to be overrun in the EU, according to ECDC. That's relavant to policy decisions now.
The fact that Ireland lacks healthcare capacity is a policy and political choice about allocation of resources and taxation.