*Photograph: John Mangan
Clare has recorded no new cases of COVID-19 in a period of 24 hours for the first time since September.
On Thursday, the Department of Health confirmed there were no new cases of the virus in Co Clare. It is the first time since September 8th that such a scenario occurred.
Over the past fortnight, there have been 51 cases of COVID-19 in Clare. The 14 day incidence rate per 100k of the population is 42.9 which is the sixth lowest in the country.
In an update on Thursday, the Department of Health confirmed that five cases in Clare had been de-notified by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC).
Mayo 1478 (+25)
Kerry 1344 (+3)
Monaghan 1256 (+3)
Wexford 1209 (+1)
Offaly 1169 (+2)
Kilkenny 1054 (+9)
Waterford 1047 (+3)
Laois 986 (+3)
Roscommon 951 (+6)
Sligo 748 (+3)
Longford 659 (+2)
Carlow 654 (+10)
Leitrim 266 (+1)#Covid_19 single figure increase in 19/25 counties.— Páraic McMahon (@thepmanofficial) December 3, 2020
Nationally, there are a total of 183 new cases. These are located in Dublin (56), Donegal (26), Limerick (13), Kilkenny (11), Monaghan (21) with the remaining 66 cases spread among 15 counties.
An additional six deaths have been notified to the HPSC. The death toll from Coronavirus in the Republic of Ireland stands at 2,080.
Speaking at Thursday’s press briefing, Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group advised that admissions to hospitals were “coming down but coming down very slowly”. He said this was happening much slower compared to the first wave. “A constant” amount of personnel receiving treatment in intensive care units has been observed, he said.
As of 2pm on Thursday, 239 persons were in hospital receiving treatment for the virus, 32 of which are in ICUs.
Professor Nolan outlined that an average of five to six deaths per day were recorded over the last five weeks. He detailed that case counts were not expected to drop further in the next week to ten days.
He said the approach to Christmas has a rate of infection that is three to four times higher than what NPHET would prefer. “We really do advise extreme caution over contacts per week”.
“It is a time of year when we think of family,” Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ronan Glynn remarked as he urged the public to consider the impact of their social contacts now ahead of Christmas and the potential risk that could be transmitted.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tony Holohan added, “Just because things are allowable doesn’t mean we should rush out and do them”.
