Irish officials have blamed Christmas spies for high levels of Covid-19 infections.
They said festival collections, rather than the new infectious Covid variant spreading from the UK, were the main reason behind the rise in the virus’ presence.
Having had one of the lowest disease rates in the entire European Union, Ireland is now facing one of the fastest rates of decline, according to the country’s health leaders.
Philip Nolan, head of the Irish modeling group Covid-19, said over the weekend that he thought the new variant represented between 5 per cent and 17 per cent of the current average. right now.
“Right now we think the diversity of the UK here is at a very low level, even with that small sample,” Mr Nolan told national broadcaster RTE. “We saw an even more intense level of socialization and viral spread over Christmas than we would have expected and that is what is driving us to the precarious situation we are in now.”
Mr Nolan spoke out after the Irish Prime Minister, Michael Martin, said last week that the new variant found in nearby Britain was spreading in Ireland at an alarming rate. has surpassed the toughest models available from the government.
Ireland’s leading pathologist, Cillian De Gascun, revealed on Friday that laboratories had found 16 examples of the variant from a sample of 169 positive cases.
Mr Nolan said Ireland was to report more than 3,000 cases a day over the weekend on Saturday, almost doubling its daily schedule. It predicted a peak of up to 6,000 cases per day, partly due to a test result of positive tests.
Disease is also spreading rapidly across the open border from British-run Northern Ireland. Cases per 100,000 people in the last seven days have risen to 577 after the health authority reported a further 3,576 cases over the past 48 hours.