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The country is in the grip of a third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and a rapid acceleration in the growth of cases is of great concern, senior health officials have said.
Despite having the lowest incidence rate of Covid-19 in the European Union, cases in the state have increased rapidly in recent days.
Some 727 cases were reported Monday, and the five-day average doubled to 616 in the space of just four days.
Of the cases reported on Monday, 62 percent were in people under the age of 45, with 311 cases located in Dublin, 51 in Kilkenny, 48 in Wexford, 44 in Donegal, 44 in Cork and the remaining 229 spread over 19 other counties. in the Republic.
Donegal and Louth counties have the highest infection rates in the state.
In Donegal, the 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population is 273.9 and in Louth it is 240.5. The lowest rate is in Leitrim, with 28.1 cases per 100,000.
The nationwide 14-day incidence rate is now 122 cases per 100,000 people, up from 83 on Monday of last week.
New variant
Dr Cillian De Gascun said that he could not exclude the possibility that the new strain of Covid-19 had already reached Ireland.
The director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory said he had been identified in the UK as early as September and that, given the normal length of travel between the two countries, it was “difficult to exclude” that he was not in Ireland.
But he added that to date there was no hard evidence that the variant was in Ireland.
This occurs when the 48-hour ban on travel to the Republic from Great Britain will run until after Christmas.
Ireland
Ireland will receive more than 9,000 doses of Covid vaccine …
The ban, which took effect at midnight on Monday, caused travel chaos in Britain, disrupting the travel plans of large numbers of Irish emigrants hoping to return for Christmas.
At least two consular flights are scheduled to fly from Britain to Ireland on Tuesday night so that Irish residents will be stranded by the home travel ban.
Meanwhile, the state will receive up to 9,750 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine by the end of the week after the European drug regulator recommended conditional approval for the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.
Ireland is set to receive two shipments of the vaccine just after Christmas Day. Shipments come in various sizes, from 195 vials of the vaccine to 975 vials. Each vial contains five doses of the vaccine. – Additional reports: PA, Reuters
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