25 signatures reached
To: Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar & The Irish Government
A COMPREHENSIVE ZERO COVID STRATEGY FOR IRELAND
Ireland needs a comprehensive, zero covid strategy.
A zero covid strategy would mean that Ireland would not have or maintain the active, uncontrolled, spread of the virus within the community.
It would involve a combination of our current restrictions (for a period of time),
adding in aggressive public health measures (contract tracing, case finding, testing, supported isolation),
managing the Northern Irish border fairly and reasonably (in agreement with NI),
and quarantining visitors in hotels (not including lorry drivers, cabin crew & sailors who would be managed separately).
New Zealand is proof that a Zero Covid strategy works extremely effectively and efficiently.
Enough is enough. We’ve spent the last year in a perpetual cycle of lockdowns, it evidently does NOT work. We have been in lockdown 3 since the start of January and it will continue until at least the beginning of April. That is 3 months, had we introduced a zero covid strategy at the beginning of this lockdown perhaps things would already be going back to ‘normal’. We are experiencing all of the pain of extreme lockdowns without any of the gain. For most, a zero covid strategy would not currently change much about their day-to-day life but it would give us all back our freedom in the near future. Ireland currently has the toughest lockdown restrictions in Europe and the 3rd toughest restrictions globally.
It’s time to take a stand. Sign this petition to force the Irish government to implement a comprehensive Zero Covid strategy. This isn’t just a bad handling of a national emergency, it’s an unacceptable handling of a national emergency, they are failing us. They have had every opportunity to produce an effective living with Covid strategy and yet after weeks and month of waiting nothing has come to fruition. Sign this petition to show the Irish government that our only logical next option is to introduce a Zero Covid strategy.
Why is this important?
People are dying every day from covid,
Many are living with long-term effects from contracting covid,
People are committing suicide at epidemic proportions,
Everyone’s mental health is deteriorating,
The demand for mental health services has skyrocketed to the point where the services may collapse at any moment (baring in mind that it was born on its last legs),
People are suffering because there simply isn’t enough resources in place to help them,
Students (primary, 2nd & 3rd level) are expected to produce the same results as years previous even though their learning environments have changed so drastically,
Elderly people are experiencing loneliness like never before,
The circumstances for people living in direct provision have only gotten more dire as the pandemic has continued,
Many small businesses have been forced to close down permanently,
Businesses that have survived this long are one more lockdown away from shutting down,
The airports are open letting 100s of people into the country everyday without mandatory hotel quarantines,
Vaccines are being rolled out at a painfully slow rate,
The government is failing to acquire enough vaccines at a quick enough rate,
Nurses, doctors and all other healthcare staff have been treated so poorly throughout the last year e.g. student nursing only receiving payment for working during a pandemic after months of protests
This is a (not exhaustive) list of the things the Irish government has either directly or indirectly done to negativity impact Ireland and it’s people, in relation to the pandemic.