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About 10 days after the state’s 4,000 schools opened, cases have been identified in 54 of them, according to public health officials.
In only one school has an additional case been identified, and in most cases the case is attributed to an infection in the community, as heard Wednesday at a National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) briefing. .
An additional 84 confirmed cases of Covid-19, including 51 in Dublin, have been reported to NPHET, it reported. This brings the total number of cases of the disease in the Republic to 30,164.
Three more deaths were reported, bringing the total number of deaths to 1,781. Four people with Covid-19 have died in the past five days, after nearly a month with no deaths.
The breeding number, a measure of how many people a case infects, now stands near 1 but 1.4 in Dublin, according to Professor Philip Nolan, chairman of the NPHET epidemiological modeling advisory group.
The 14-day national incidence of the disease is 38 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. During that period, there have been 1,810 cases, half of them in Dublin. The mean age of the cases is 32 years and 70% are under 45 years of age.
Expressing concern about the increase in cases, even among older people, Professor Nolan said that the daily average has risen from 100 to 120 to 172.
“We are seeing a growing number of cases in Dublin, growing by about 5 percent per day. If this continues, the number of cases would double every 14 days ”.
“Given the size of Dublin’s population, it is essential that we prevent further spread now by limiting our social contacts and taking precautions during essential contacts.”
The number of hospital patients is 49 with an average of three admissions a day. “We continue to see a worrying pattern of cases, particularly in Dublin,” said Dr. Ronan Glynn, Acting Medical Director. “Transmission is diffuse across the county, across all age groups, and driven primarily by social interaction within and between households.”
Professor Nolan said there has been a “progressive and clear” increase in the number of people hospitalized, although the severity of the cases is less because a younger population is affected than before.
While the number of cases was stable for three weeks, it has been growing for the past 10 days, mostly driven by close contacts of confirmed cases.
At the same time, the number of cases is increasing among the elderly and, for the first time recently, among those over 85 years of age.
“The fact that the virus has spread to the older age groups is a source of great concern to us,” he said.
In most of the country, the level of disease is stable or declining, but Dublin, Limerick and a few other counties are “going in the opposite direction.”
In 25 of the 26 counties of the Republic, there was an average of two cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last week, but in Dublin this figure exceeded six.
Authorities said they had no details of the deaths in recent days, but would be watching closely to make sure it was not a new trend.
Baptisms
In Dublin, Professor Nolan said, the vast majority of cases occur in homes and less than half are isolated cases. All parts of the county, except South Dublin, have seen a significant increase in cases.
NPHET should review the recent increase in cases at its meeting Thursday, when it will also review testing procedures and isolation rules.
Dr Glynn said it was up to the people of Dublin to “keep this from getting worse”, and went on to suggest that, if possible, people should not go ahead with family events like christenings, communions and family gatherings for the next several weeks. . .
“We want people to be able to socialize and have as normal a life as possible, but they must do so safely.”
Nearly 70,00 tests were completed in the past week and new locations have been opened for sampling, authorities said.
When asking people to exercise personal surveillance, Professor Nolan said he suspected that people are “watched” in some social settings and especially with strangers, but much less when friends are at home. However, they are equally likely to be infected by people they know.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said Wednesday there was a lot of concern about rising numbers in Dublin and Limerick, but ruled out immediate local restrictions for the two counties.
Martin said the government’s longer-term plan to control the virus, due to be launched next Tuesday, would “more comprehensively address” the spikes in Covid-19 cases in the two counties.
“No specific decisions have been made regarding those counties at this time and NPHET will continue to monitor the situation,” he told reporters at a news conference in government buildings.
There will be a Covid-19 cabinet meeting on Thursday where this will be discussed “in great detail,” he said.
The message to people in Dublin and Limerick was to remain “very vigilant, distance yourself socially, reduce your social contacts,” he said.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar questioned the need to introduce restrictions in Dublin and Limerick when the incidence of Covid-19 cases is higher in Belfast or other European cities.
“As a Dublin citizen and resident and minister responsible for business and employment, I would like the public health people to give me a very good justification as to why we would do something more drastic in Dublin or Limerick than is being done in other cities in Europe that may have a higher incidence ”, he said.
When asked if the government was considering measures similar to those in Glasgow, where people cannot visit other people’s homes to stop infections, Varadkar said he did not know if they had worked and would need to be analyzed first.
Mr. Varadkar said that the public managed to bring the virus down to very low levels in early summer with public health measures and that people need to “step up that” to avoid further restrictions.
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