The average number of people in Ireland infected by someone who has tested positive for the new coronavirus fell to 1.0 to 1.4 after it rose above 1 for the first time last week, senior health officials said on Thursday.
The so-called "reproduction rate" rose to 1.2 to 1.8 a week ago, forcing the government to delay entering the final phase of its reopening plan. A rate above 1 signals that the number of cases are increasing exponentially again.
As of Wednesday, the average number of cases per day over the preceding five days fell to 18 versus a four-week high of 19 last week. A further seven new cases were reported on Thursday.
(This story corrects number of new cases on Thursday to seven from nine)
(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
