Coronavirus: the country that has gone from being an example to one where …

Ireland has grown into one of the most effective countries in the fight against coronavirus to have the highest transmission rate in the world: 1,288 daily cases per million inhabitants last week.

This country of five million people had the lowest incidence rate in the European Union, after becoming the first The European state must introduce a second lockdown.

However, with 1,288 new confirmed cases per million population on Monday, according to data compiled by the University of Oxford, now occupies first place, ahead of the Czech Republic and Slovenia.

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

Hospitals are on the brink of collapse, according to the Irish Health Service. They have 1,700 patients infected with the virus, according to figures released on Tuesday, almost double that recorded during the peak of the first spring wave.

After Christmas, another confinement

To fight against this contagion “tsunami”, in the words of Prime Minister Micheál Martin, Ireland has launched a third childbirth after Christmas. This measure included the closure of schools, shops and pubs, restaurants and hotels. Unless you are involved in an “absolutely essential” task, a citizen “has no reason to be far from home,” the head of government said last week.

A few weeks before, Ireland was one of the countries that eased restrictions on Christmas holidays the most.

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

The British variant of covid-19

In Ireland, many cases of the variant coronavirus discovered in the UK have also been detected, up to 70% more contagious according to UK health authorities.

In the first week of the year, the new variant represented 45% of samples analyzed in Ireland, according to the authorities in that country.

In an attempt to stop the spread, the Republic of Ireland has suspended flights from the UK until January 9 and is now asking Covid-19 negative on arrival, a measure which will be extended to all countries from Saturday.

However, the nearly 500-kilometer border with Northern Ireland will remain open, as indicated by the terms of the 1998 peace agreement aimed at ending three decades of bloody fighting between Catholic Republicans and Protestant trade unionists.

Tuesday, Swiss announced a quarantine for travelers from Ireland. World Health Organization director of health emergencies Michael Ryan acknowledged that the country is now facing “one of the largest increases in the number of cases of the disease “in the world.