Irish health chief worried about an unexpected increase in COVID-19 cases

DUBLIN (Reuters) – An unexpected 10% rise in the five-day moving average of new COVID-19 cases in Ireland threatens to reverse a recent sharp drop in the incidence rate of the disease to the third-lowest in Europe, the country has the chief medical officer said Saturday.

Ireland was among the first European countries to re-impose tough nationwide measures last month to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, with travel restrictions and the closure of non-essential retail stores more than halving the infection rate by 14. days to 130 cases per 100,000 people.

The number of people infected with someone who has COVID-19 – the so-called R rate – also dropped by more than half, to 0.6 last month, prompting health officials to predict only Thursday that cases would drop below. the 100 days within the time limit should end on December 1st.

But infections have started to rise since then, and the five-day moving average has risen to 392 from 354 after the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) reported 456 new cases on Saturday.

“We have seen higher numbers in the last few days than we expected based on the encouraging trends of the past three weeks,” Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan said in a statement. “We are concerned that this progress is at risk. NPHET will continue to monitor the situation closely in the coming days. “

Hospital admissions of COVID-19 cases continued to decline and hit a one-month low of 254 on Saturday, having remained far below the peak of nearly 900 in April during the second wave of infections in Ireland.

The rapid drop in cases from a daily high of nearly 1,300 on October 18 led to confidence in the government last week that restrictions would be eased on schedule in 2-1 / 2 weeks and potentially again just before Christmas.