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Another 552 confirmed cases of Covid-19 have been reported to the National Public Health Emergency Team, it reported Sunday night. This brings the total number of infections in the Republic to 62,002.
Two more deaths were reported, bringing the total to 1,915.
Validation of the data in the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 6 confirmed cases and the total number of 62,002 confirmed cases reflects this fact.
Of the new confirmed cases, 63% corresponded to people under 45 years of age, with 36 being the average age; 275 were men and 275 were women.
Some 173 cases were located in Dublin, followed by 86 in Cork, 40 in Limerick and 30 in Donegal. The remaining 223 cases were spread across all other counties.
As of 2:00 p.m. today, 330 Covid-19 patients are hospitalized, of which 47 are in intensive care. There have been 17 additional hospitalizations in the last 24 hours.
The 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 residents statewide is 253.5. Cavan has a 14-day incidence rate of 590.7 while Leitrim’s incidence rate is 106.1.
The lowest 14-day national incidence rate was on July 3, when the rate was 2.98 cases per 100,000 population.
Meanwhile, the chair of the National Public Health Emergency Team’s Covid-19 expert advisory group, Dr. Cillian De Gascun, warned that any early departure from Level 5 restrictions appears unlikely.
He said that while the number of daily confirmed cases had dropped significantly in recent days, they were still much higher than during the summer and this would lead to more hospital admissions and deaths in the coming weeks.
He stressed that the decline in currently reported cases is likely attributable to improved Level 3 restrictions, adding that the move to Level 5 was essential to further reduce the numbers.
He said that generally after the restrictions are introduced, it takes 10-14 days for the impact to be felt.
“What we’ve seen is the decline in cases that probably started as a result of enhanced level three restrictions,” he said.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1 at lunchtime, he said that “we will not have seen the full impact of Level 5 yet, but it is likely that what we saw as a result of the national Level 3 and then Level 4 located around the Border began to it has an impact. “
He said Level 3 restrictions alone could bring the R number, or the virus’s reproduction rate, to one, but that would still see many hundreds of new cases per day.
He added that while Level 3 measures were beginning to work, they would not suppress the disease and stabilize it at the current level.
“We have a six-week program to get as low as possible,” he said, adding that the goal was to reduce the number of cases and the reproduction rate as low as possible in December to ensure that the benefit of the restrictions was felt. for as long as possible afterwards,
Earlier, HSE CEO Paul Reid cautioned against complacency, saying it was too early to say a corner had been turned.
He noted a significant drop in demand for testing that was attributed to a drop in the number of confirmed cases, the positivity rate and the number of close contacts from six to less than three.
In total, Reid said 100,000 tests were carried out last week, 20,000 less than current capacity.
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