Ireland: New Corona strain is spreading more than expected

The Prime Minister of Ireland, Michael Martin, announced that the new strain of the Corona virus that causes the “Covid-19” infection, which was recently discovered in Britain, is spreading much faster than he had expected.
Martin announced, in a televised speech, that the government decided to tighten public health restrictions for a period of 4 weeks to contain the outbreak, against the backdrop of unprecedented increases in Corona infections.
He said: “At a time when international studies continue on this new version of the virus, it has become completely clear that we are facing a strain of the disease that spreads much faster.”
“It is spreading at a rate that has exceeded the most pessimistic expectations that we had,” the Irish prime minister warned.
The Irish health authorities reported that, during the past 24 hours, it had recorded a record high of 1545 confirmed cases of Coronavirus, amid the spread of the mutated strain discovered in Britain, which is considered more contagious by 70%.
On Tuesday, Britain monitored a record number of infections, with about 53,000 cases, while the new strain spread to more than 10 European countries, in addition to Canada, Japan, the United States, Lebanon, Jordan and the UAE.