Sir, – The latest "best guess" from the National Public Health Advisory Team is that 1 per cent of the Irish population has been exposed to the coronavirus ("Coronavirus in Ireland: 'There is no immunity out there', health officials warn", News, May 22nd).
Remember that 1 per cent is approximately 49,000 people. With just under 25,000 confirmed cases at time of writing, that means that we have managed to find 50 per cent of all infected people in Ireland. I struggle to see how anyone could reach such a conclusion.
When you consider how limited testing capacity was in March and April, and when you bear in mind that 80 per cent of cases are either mild or asymptomatic, according to the World Health Organisation, the idea that we have successfully identified one in every two cases of coronavirus infection is preposterous. – Yours, etc,
STEPHEN BRUCE,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.