*Photograph: John Mangan
Six new cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed in Clare while the national daily tally is at its lowest since mid-December.
Dr Ronan Glynn said on Tuesday that the figure of 359 new cases across the county is “very welcome”. The tally “represents the lowest number of cases reported on a single day since mid-December”. 159 of the cases are in Dublin, 25 in Westmeath, 21 in Louth, 21 in Galway, 19 in Meath and the remaining 114 cases are spread across 19 other counties.
Clare accounts for 6 of the cases while the county’s 14 day incidence rate per 100k of the population is at 140.6 making it the ninth lowest in the country.
There are 14 additional deaths recorded, the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) have stated. 3 deaths occurred in March, 10 in February and 1 in November. There has been a total of 4,333 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.
Numbers in hospital continue to decline, 28 hospitalisations linked to the virus occurred in the past 24 hours. 116 persons remain in critical care because of COVID-19, they are included in the 498 currently hospitalised.
As of February 27th, 435,895 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland, 294,550 people have received their first dose and 141,345 people have received their second dose.
Global growth of the virus cannot be replicated in Ireland, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer stated. “While we continue to make good progress in Ireland, globally in the past week, the number of cases of COVID-19 has increased for the first time in 7 weeks. We must not allow this virus the opportunity to do the same here. Please hold firm to the public health advice and together we can continue to protect and build on the progress we have made over the last 2 months”
