*Photograph: John Mangan
Co Clare now has the seventh lowest 14 day incidence rate of COVID-19 in the country while 18 new cases are known here among the 1,414 nationally as health officials announced 79 further deaths.
Provisional figures from the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) have detailed that 18 new cases of COVID-19 are known in Co Clare.
There has been a further reduction in the 14 day incidence rate of the virus per 100k of the population in Clare. At a figure of 346.8, it is now the seventh lowest in the country.
A further 1,414 confirmed cases have been notified to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), of these 608 are in Dublin, 05 in Cork, 96 in Galway, 65 in Meath, 59 in Donegal and the remaining 481 cases are spread across all other counties.
79 more people have died because of the virus, NPHET have stated. 78 of these deaths occurred in the month of January. The median age of those who died is 82 years and the age range is 56-98 years. 3,292 persons have died from COVID-19 in the Republic of Ireland.
More cases have been reported in January than throughout the entirety of 2020, the Chief Medical Officer highlighted. “This shows just how quickly this disease can spread and how much it can impact public health. The efforts by all of the population in following the basic public health advice has seen us reduce the incidence of the disease very rapidly compared to most countries in Europe
“Despite the recent, significant decrease in cases, there remains a level of infection in the population which is double that seen at the peak of incidence last October. The next few weeks need to see us maintain compliance with all of the measures that are in place so that we can get to levels of the disease that are as low as possible,” Dr Tony Holohan added.
