As Dr Scally and Professor McConkey have stressed, it makes enormous sense to work as one island to keep the effects of this death-dealing plague to an absolute minimum in order to gain precious time for the development of an effective vaccine.

I believe now is the time for Arlene Foster, in particular, to show brave leadership. For the sake of the health and wellbeing of the people of Northern Ireland - and Ireland as a whole - I hope she is able to break out of her unionist straitjacket, admit that the British Government's current strategy is inadequate and ally Northern Ireland with the superior strategy, based on widespread testing and tracing, which has been adopted by the Irish government, the World Health Organisation and the EU's European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.