*Photograph: John Mangan
Clare’s spread of COVID-19 is increasing once again following confirmation of 14 new cases in the county.
A further growth in the 14 day incidence rate per 100k of the population has been recorded in Clare, the figure is now at 128.8 which is below the national rate of 220.1. Clare has the ninth lowest incidence rate in the country.
On Monday evening, the Department of Health announced 14 new cases in Co Clare among the 765 nationally. Of the remainder, 291 in Dublin, 63 in Cork, 59 in Monaghan, 49 in Louth, 43 in Meath, and the remaining 246 cases are spread across all other counties.
Figures for St Stephen’s Day which have been analysed by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) indicate that 19 further positive cases were recorded in Clare for that day.
Kerry 1729 (+20)
Clare 1668 (+19)
Westmeath 1643 (+8)
Monaghan 1497 (0)
Kilkenny 1479 (+17)
Waterford 1301 (+17)
Offaly 1279 (+4)
Laois 1227 (+2)
Roscommon 1031 (+5)
Sligo 901 (+12)
Carlow 846 (+1)
Longford 742 (0)
Leitrim 295 (+3)#Covid_19 new cases in 24/26 counties.— Páraic McMahon (@thepmanofficial) December 28, 2020
One further death has been notified to the HPSC. Since March, there have been 2,205 deaths associated with Coronavirus in the Republic of Ireland.
Latest hospital data which is from 2pm on Monday state that 359 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 30 are in ICU. 41 additional hospitalisations occurred in the past 24 hours, with 5 additional admissions to ICU.
Once again, the Chief Medical Officer attributed the drop in national cases to lower rates of attendance, referrals and presentation for testing over the Christmas period.
Dr Tony Holohan added, “Today we are reporting that we have now exceeded the cumulative number of people hospitalised in this third wave than in the second. Hospitalisations have increased sharply in the last two days. This is a concerning trend which reflects the sharp increase incidence we saw in the last 10 days.
“We are also seeing a steep rise in the positivity rates in community testing with a seven day average of over 9.2 percent up from 5.2 percent on 18th December. This indicates that the virus is increasing its foothold out in our communities. This is just one more reason why we are strongly advising everyone to stay safely at home to avoid transmitting or catching this virus, as it continues to circulate widely”.
