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Large family gatherings and lower levels of coronavirus at the start of the pandemic could be contributing to rising Covid-19 rates in border areas, North Korea’s chief scientific adviser said.
However, Professor Ian Young told The Irish Times that there was “no clear signal” as to why the number of cases was so high in the Derry, Strabane and Donegal areas in particular. “At the moment, it seems that there is nothing definite that we can identify with the Border, [but] It seems like a considerable coincidence that we are seeing a problem in various border areas. ”
Donegal joined Dublin at Level 3 in the Government’s plan to live with Covid-19 from midnight on Friday; Across the border in Derry and Strabane, the rates are the highest on the island of Ireland, with an average infection rate in the last seven days of 210 per 100,000 residents through Sunday.
In the North, 187 new coronavirus cases were confirmed in the 24 hours to Sunday, with 319 on Saturday, bringing the total number of positive tests since the start of the pandemic to 10,729, according to the Northern Ireland Department of Health. .
No further coronavirus-related deaths were reported on Sunday, leaving the department’s recorded death toll at 578.
Northwest evidence
Professor Young said the evidence suggests that in the Northwest “there are many individual cases, or very small groups associated with household transmission or community transmission where we cannot identify the source of infection,” and “it did not come down to no single cause or large group or outbreak ”.
The situation on both sides of the border, he said, was very similar. “Something has happened in the Derry-Strabane-Donegal area that we don’t really understand, and we don’t know if it relates to people being less careful about how they interact, perhaps because they did not experience much infection before, or if it relates to with something we haven’t identified. ”
It was “possible”, Prof Young said, that the previous focus on Belfast, where the virus was more prevalent, meant that “messaging has been integrated a bit better in Belfast because people have been more aware of it.
“So few people in the border regions know someone who has had the virus or seen its consequences that maybe people are not so careful about the behaviors,” he said.
‘More careful’
He said it was also possible that there were “some differences in the way people interact. There may be stronger local communities, larger family connections, people may be more inclined to get together for family events. ”
From a public health perspective, he said, “what we really need. . . it’s everyone in the Derry-Strabane area and other border areas just to be very careful with the basic messages.
“Comply with our new home visiting restrictions and do not cross the border unless it is really necessary,” he said.
Professor Young said that while stricter measures to combat the spread of the coronavirus would be a decision by the Executive of the North, it would take at least one more week to see if the new rules limiting home visits have taken effect.
“I think it would be reasonable to wait and see what the effect of our existing measures has been before making a decision, but it is certainly possible in the future in all parts of Northern Ireland that additional restrictions are necessary,” he said.
The Executive is expected to make a decision regarding a curfew for the Northern hotel industry on Monday. The decision to impose a curfew in an effort to limit the spread of the coronavirus was postponed last week.
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