Robin Swann blames the public, but track and trace failures and Executive’s confusing restrictions are factors in soaring Covid-19 figures

It was calculated yesterday that 27% of all of the Province’s positive cases have come in the last seven days, an astonishing statistic that suggests that the Department of Health here has lost a grip on the situation.

Robin Swann, the health minister, is clear where the blame lies. In his press conference yesterday, he was on familiar turf, lambasting those who don’t wear masks and those who give a “two-fingered salute to the NHS” for playing down the severity of the virus. He directed more ire at his own “armchair critics”.

Mr Swann is right that some people have ignored social distancing guidelines, and indeed many more have become weary of Covid-19 as the impact of the pandemic stretches well beyond six months, with no end in sight.

But that is not an explanation for how coronavirus rates of infection here are now well beyond much of the rest of the UK and Ireland. It is laughable for instance that we impose quarantine on travellers returning from parts of Europe when our infection rates now dwarf theirs.

The evidence suggests that the much-vaunted track and trace system launched in the summer here is not working.

The system had time to bed in during the quieter summer weeks, but the sense that it was able to track outbreaks as they happened has been lost since we turned into autumn. There is also an argument that the Executive’s confused messaging and drip-feed of renewed restrictions have hindered rather than helped.

Mr Swann is entitled to highlight complacency among the public if he wishes and the scenes at GAA games recently were unacceptable, but there was no acknowledgement from the minister about any shortcomings in his own department’s strategy. Mr Swann talked long enough about the impending second wave but it seems we are now being submerged by it.