[News] Coronavirus: 'Worrying trend' of rising cases in Ireland

[vagabondl.]

There is a "worrying trend" of rising cases of Covid-19 in Ireland and "some new clusters", according to Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan.

No deaths were recorded in Ireland in the last 24 hours and the total number of deaths is 1,735.

Twenty four new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed, bringing the total of confirmed cases to 25,462.

Dr Holohan said a new cluster, in the north west, was travel-related and originated in Iraq.

He urged people who have made bookings to travel abroad for holidays "not to go ahead with that booking" rather than risk picking up Covid-19 or bringing it back to their community.

He said officials were "genuinely very concerned" about the increasing "role and risk of travel", RTÉ reports.

Earlier on Monday, the chair of the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, Prof Philip Nolan, said non-essential travel outside of Ireland is too big a risk to take.

Dr Holohan said there was a "large number of contacts" linked to some people recently diagnosed with the virus, particularly among young people.

He said more than 20 people had to be tested as close contacts of some individual cases, which compared to an average two to three contacts typically reported in April.