The average number of daily Covid-19 cases has risen from 350 to 424 in the past week.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan is “increasingly concerned”, and said the country has two weeks to act to stop the community transmission of the the virus.
366 new cases were detected yesterday, while 11 additional deaths were reported by the Department of Health last night.
Discussions on exiting Level 5 on December 1st will likely take place next week.
Professor of Public Health at UCC, Ivan Perry, says if we’re to avoid a spike in cases this Christmas, strict measures on arrivals from overseas need to be put in place:
“This is something we’ve struggled with in Ireland. If you look at other countries – particularly Australia – their view is that if you want to control the pandemic, you have to ‘turn off the tap’ as it were.
“And I suppose an outright ban wouldn’t be feasible but we do need to put in clear and enforceable measures and controls at the airports.”
18 new cases of Covid-19 were reported in Tipperary yesterday as the county’s incidence rate stands at 109 cases per 100,000 people.
Having been bottom of the list for infection rate for many weeks, Tipperary now sits in the middle of the rankings with a rate that’s only slightly below the national average of 121 cases per 100,000 people.
Donegal and Limerick continue to have the worst infection rates over the last fortnight.
