*Photograph: Sean Curtin / True Media
Clare’s spread of COVID-19 continues to drop while 429 new cases have been confirmed nationally.
Only four other counties in the country have a lower 14 day incidence rate than Clare’s rate of 32.
Within the past fortnight, there have been 38 persons diagnosed with the virus in Clare.
Figures released by the Department of Health on Sunday indicate that less than 5 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Clare among the 429 nationally. Of the cases 122 are in Dublin, 46 in Donegal, 30 in Limerick, 22 in Laois, 20 in Cork and the remaining 189 cases are spread across all other counties.
Health officials have been notified of a further death bringing the total amount of deaths from the virus in the Republic of Ireland to 2,124.
Despite noting Ireland’s incidence rate was the lowest in Europe on Saturday, the Chief Medical Officer 24 hours later admitted to being “concerned” with the latest figures.
“Our efforts in Level 5 in recent weeks brought the 14-day incidence rate down to 78 per 100,000 population, put us in a position of having the lowest disease incidence in Europe and ultimately protected many people and saved many lives,” Dr Tony Holohan stated.
He added, “Take today’s figures as a sign that we all must now reduce our social contacts, limit our interactions with those outside our households, weigh the risks of what socialising we are planning over the next two weeks, so that we can all have as safe a Christmas as possible.”
