NPHET’s statement on international travel causes confusion among travel agents
DUBLIN: As the EU Digital COVID Certificate is set to take effect in Ireland on July 19, the Chief Medical Officer’s remarks has caused confusion among travel agents.
The Digital COVID certificate will allow fully vaccinated people and those who have recovered from COVID-19 in the last 9 months to travel freely across the EU. But Dr. Tony Holohan said the public health advice remains for people not to travel abroad unless they are fully vaccinated.
With his statement suggesting that only fully vaccinated people should travel for holidays, the Irish Travel Agents Association has accused the CMO of creating confusion and has sought further clarification.
“We need to get the message out there, very simply, and straightforwardly on who can travel. The Digital COVID Certification is not a vaccination certificate. It was designed in such a way that we were not to discriminate against people who were not vaccinated, we were to offer them the alternative of negative test results for recovery from COVID,” Irish Travel Agents Association President Paul Hackett said.
HSE supports CMO
Meanwhile, the HSE Chief Clinical Officer supported Dr. Holohan’s statement, saying that the best advice for anyone traveling abroad is to get vaccinated. Vaccination is “the safest way to ensure that you won’t contract the virus or a variant of the virus abroad and bring it back home,” said Dr. Colm Henry.
Dr. Henry also said that the good public health advice is that people should not go abroad unless they are fully vaccinated. Even if a person has a negative test result, he said, they can still contract the disease or a variant from abroad and bring it back home.
Allegations that NPHET is delaying rapid antigen testing programme
Meanwhile, the chairperson of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport alleged that the rapid antigen testing pilot program for aviation had been unnecessarily delayed. Chairperson Kieran O’Donnell said the NPHET had not yet discussed or considered the Government-commissioned Report of the COVID-19 Rapid Testing Group (Ferguson Report). The committee has now called for an “immediate” review of the report.
“In their report published nearly three months ago, the Covid-19 Rapid Testing Group recommended that pilot programmes of serial rapid antigen testing commence at scale and at pace across various sectors, including the aviation sector,” Mr. O’Donnell said. O’Donnell said there was a need for clarity on why there has been such a delay in a pilot programme for aviation.
“The Joint Committee on Transport and Communications remains of the view that all available Covid-19 testing options must be fully explored as part of the Covid-19 public health toolkit, including rapid antigen testing,” he added.
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