‘Super spreader’ blamed for high number of Covid-19 cases in border region

The high number of cases of Covid-19 in the border region may be due to a super spreader, Dr Gabriel Scally has said.

The latest figures show there have been 626 cases of Covid-19 in Co Cavan and 373 in Co Monaghan.

Co Cavan has the highest incidence rate of Covid-19 in the Republic of Ireland per 100,000 of the population, followed by Dublin and Monaghan.

Ireland’s chief medical officer Tony Holohan said he did not think that relatively high incidences of the virus in several Irish border counties was linked to people with the infection travelling in from Northern Ireland.

President of the Epidemiology and Public Health section of the Royal Society of Medicine Dr Gabriel Scally told RTE radio there could be a “super spreader” in the border region but this could not be confirmed.

“What we have seen from the outbreaks elsewhere and in other countries is that you can get super spreaders. These are people who may not have all of the symptoms and may not be terribly ill but spread the virus with a very heavy virus load.”

“If you get one or two of these people, they can affect a lot of people in a local area so maybe there is a super spreader around - that could be one of the reasons.

“Whatever the reasons, I think it deserves a bit of attention and a bit of investigation and it certainly deserves discussion in a North South forum because I and other people have been saying there is no way out of this without an all island approach.

A memorandum of understanding between the departments of health in the Republic and Northern Ireland was signed on April 7.