Which is the country where the coronavirus is spreading the fastest

Ireland faces an unstoppable third wave of coronavirus and in a matter of weeks, it went from one of the most effective countries in the fight against the pandemic to highest transmission rate in the world, with 1,288 daily cases per million inhabitants last week.

This small country of five million inhabitants It only recorded 2,397 deaths from covid-19 and as of December it had the lowest incidence rate in the European Union, having become the first European country to introduce a second lockdown.

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But with 1,288 new confirmed cases per million inhabitants On Monday, according to data compiled by the University of Oxford, it now ranks dismal, ahead of the Czech Republic and Slovenia.

Ireland had recorded just over 93,000 positive coronavirus cases as of January 1, according to official statistics, a figure that has since exceeded 155,000 (3,086 more than Tuesday).

Ireland, “contagion tsunami” and hospitals on the brink of collapse

Switzerland announced a quarantine for travelers from Ireland on Tuesday, while WHO’s director of health emergencies, Michael Ryan, acknowledged that the country now faces “one of the biggest increases in the number of cases of the disease” in the world.

According to the Irish Health Service, hospitals are on the verge of collapse. They have 1,700 patients infected with the virus according to figures released Tuesday, nearly double the number recorded during the peak of the first spring wave.

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To fight against this “Tsunami” of infectionsIn the words of Prime Minister Micheál Martin, the government launched a third quarantine after Christmas and decreed the closure of schools, shops and pubs, restaurants and hotels.

“Unless they are engaged in an absolutely essential task, a person has no reason to be away from home,” the head of government said last week.

A few weeks earlier, Ireland had been one of the countries that have eased restrictions on Christmas holidays the most, when others like Italy decided to cancel family reunions. It was allowed up to three households Different came together so people could have a “real Christmas,” in Martin’s words.

According to local media, the easing was decided against the recommendations of the team of scientists advising the government.

One of the country’s top medical officials, Tony Holohan, said that before Christmas a level of social interaction was observed comparable to that which existed before the pandemic, which encouraged the spread of the virus.

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In Ireland, many cases of coronavirus variant discovered in UK, up to 70% more contagious according to British health authorities. In the first week of the year, the new variant represented 45% of the samples analyzed on the island.

In an attempt to stop the spread, the Republic of Ireland has suspended flights from Britain until January 9 and now requires a negative covid-19 test on arrival, as it will be extended to all countries from Saturday.

However, some media point to the role the border with the British province of Northern Ireland may have played in their efforts to stop the spread of the new British variant, as the nearly 500 km border remains open under the terms of the 1998 peace accord to end three decades of bloody fighting between Catholic Republicans and Protestant Unionists.

The prime minister said on Monday it was “very difficult” to seal that border and “too simplistic” to blame a single region for the dizzying spread of the virus.