BREAKING: Ireland's Covid-19 surge due to increased social mixing, and not new variant - WHO https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/covid-19-surge-due-to-increased-social-mixing-says-who-s-mike-ryan-1.4455748

"My own country in Ireland...has suffered one of the most acute increases in disease incidence of any country in the world" said @DrMikeRyan
“Not due to the variant let me add, but due to increased social mixing"
"New variant strains..have not been the driver of new transmission"

“Transmission was down to single digits in most countries in Europe over the summer. And we lost the battle because changed our mixing patterns over the summer, into the fall, and especially Christmas and NY holidays," said @mvankerkhove, describing "near vertical" rise in cases

The lesson to learn is once cases are down "do everything you can to keep it down" said @mvankerkhove, with "rapid, aggressive investigation" of any clusters that emerge to break the chain of transmission. "We have been shown over and over again that countries can do this."