*Photograph: Joe Buckley
Clare’s largest amount of daily new cases of COVID-19 since October has been recorded.
40 new cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed in the county, the Department of Health confirmed on Wednesday. It is the highest figure since the virus was at its peak in the county back in October when daily figures included 59 (October 11th), 39 (October 14th), 33 (October 20th) and 32 (October 18th and 25th).
Another national record has been set with 1,718 new cases notified to health authorities. Along with the 40 in Clare, there are 358 in Dublin, 164 in Cork, 155 in Louth, 150 in Donegal, 112 in Galway and the remaining 739 cases are spread across all other counties.
180.1 is the 14 day incidence rate per 100k of the population in Clare.
An additional 13 deaths associated with COVID-19 are known bringing the national death toll to 2,226.
As of 2pm today 455 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 37 are in ICU. 60 additional hospitalisations occurred in the past 24 hours.
“Ireland is no longer in a containment phase and is once again in a mitigation phase. Given the current levels of transmission in the community, every individual should consider themselves potentially infectious. It is essential that we all limit our contacts to our own household now, restrict our movements and do not give COVID-19 any further opportunities to spread. Everyone needs to stay at home other than for essential work or care. This is not the time to be visiting other houses,” Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan stated.
Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, outlined, “The reproduction number remains very high and is currently estimated at 1.6 – 1.8. The growth rate is estimated to be 7-10% per day with a doubling time of 7-10 days. We must take action immediately to prevent an almost unimaginable scenario, where case numbers in 7 to 10 days time are twice what they are today”.
Kerry 1808 (+57)
Clare 1705 (+20)
Westmeath 1682 (+27)
Monaghan 1612 (+56)
Kilkenny 1501 (+19)
Waterford 1321 (+16)
Offaly 1298 (+17)
Laois 1270 (+38)
Roscommon 1052 (+11)
Sligo 928 (+15)
Carlow 852 (+5)
Longford 749 (+6)
Leitrim 302 (+3)#Covid_19 new cases in 26/26 counties.— Páraic McMahon (@thepmanofficial) December 30, 2020
