Ireland has the highest Covid-19 infection rate in the world after more than 45,700 cases were recorded in the State last week.
The disease spread faster in Ireland than in any other country in the seven days to January 10th, with 1,323 daily cases recorded per million people, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University in the US and the non-profit organisation Our World in Data.
The infection rate was some 50 per cent higher than the United Kingdom’s, where there were 881 daily cases per one million people.
The Czech Republic, with 1,210 cases per million people, had the second highest rate, followed by Slovenia, where the seven-day rolling average was 975 daily cases per million. Across Europe, an average of 335 cases were recorded each day per million of population.
Ireland’s infection rate last week was not only the highest in the world, but one of the highest rates seen anywhere during the pandemic. It was second only to that recorded in Belgium in October – where the a seven-day rolling average hit 1,536 cases per million people.
Read more from the Irish Times