European experts warn of possibility of steep rise in Covid-19 incidence - CDC

RIGA - Due to the spread of the new Covid-19 strain, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Controls (ECDC) sees a threat of a new rise in Covid-19 incidence in the EU, LETA learned from the Latvian CDC.

The new Covid-19 strain is more infectious, causing increased incidence also in those regions where the epidemiological situation has improved and strengthened.

According to CDC, one of the examples is the UK and Ireland where Covid-19 incidence had declined, but now has increased again as the new modification appeared, and the restrictions had been eased.

The new Covid-19 strain has now been detected in several European countries, including in Latvia. In some countries it is already spreading locally.

So far five cases of the new virus variant have been detected in Latvia. All five people had returned from abroad.

At the same time, there has been a decline in Covid-19 incidence in the past week, but it is necessary to achieve even smaller number of new cases. Latvia still reports more than 800 cases a day on average and more than 100 Covid-19 patients are hospitalized every day.