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Public anxiety about Covid-19 has risen again to levels not seen since last April, public health officials said.
Three in four people now say they believe Ireland will experience a second wave of infections, according to research conducted for the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).
Another 102 confirmed cases of Covid-19 have been reported to NPHET, it said Monday night. This brings the total number of cases of the disease in the Republic to 29,774.
No more deaths were reported, leaving the total number of deaths at 1,777.
Some 56 of the new cases are in Dublin, while 11 are in Leitrim and six in Galway.
Over the last fortnight, Dublin has accounted for 47% of cases, Kildare for 8% and Limerick for 7%.
“We are monitoring the number of cases nationwide with increasing concern, particularly in Limerick and Dublin,” said Dr. Ronan Glynn, Acting Medical Director. “The next seven days are vital; everyone needs to reduce their contacts and assume that anyone they know can be a carrier of the virus. “
Expressing concern about trends in Dublin and Limerick, Dr. Glynn said that people in both counties needed to reduce their social contacts by ensuring that the gatherings of six indoors and 15 outdoors were “absolute highs.”
There are currently 49 Covid-19 patients in the hospital, including six in intensive care.
The public, while generally knowledgeable about virus infection control measures, underestimates the difference it makes to be outdoors rather than indoors when socializing, according to Professor Pete Lunn of the health unit. NPHET behavioral research.
Christmas and Halloween
Research on public behaviors has also shown that people don’t respond quickly enough when someone shows Covid-like symptoms, he said.
Urging people to immediately call their GP if they have concerns about symptoms, he also advised them to plan the challenge of spending the winter when the virus is circulating.
“Now is the time to plan for the next winter months. Take control of your own environment by making sure your home is up to date and acting on public health advice. Get into the habit of going outside, socializing and exercising safely and automatically distancing yourself physically from others. Adapt to responsible Covid behaviors inside and outside the home.
“Plan the milestones; such as Halloween, Christmas and New Year’s Eve within a Covid-19 environment. Be innovative in how you can safely celebrate with your loved ones.
“This year will bring additional challenges, so prioritize your mental and physical health, know how you will invest in them each week.
“Pick your close network of social visitors this winter and prioritize family members or friends who may be more isolated.”
Professor Lunn said that people should focus on what they can do rather than what they cannot do, and should focus on “quality rather than quantity” if they need to restrict their social activity.
Dr Glynn criticized the projection by American academics that Ireland could suffer another 1,200 deaths before the end of the year if the wearing of masks did not become universal. He said the model was made in another country on a set of metrics “taken out of context.”
However, he cautioned that people needed to improve the way they cover their faces and said that “too many” people wear face shields, which were originally intended as a limited alternative to masks.
NPHET will provide guidance regarding Halloween and Christmas closer to those dates, he said, adding that he did not want to send any message that NPHET was canceling these events.
“I’m sure the time is coming when we can give advice on that, but we haven’t given any specific consideration to the trick or treating yet.”
NPHET plans to provide more contextual information on Covid-19 trends in the future, he added, understanding that the daily release of case numbers could be a source of anxiety for some people.
Two new clusters in residential care facilities have been reported in the past week, including one in a nursing home. There are six new clusters in the workplace, none of them in meat plants.
Trips abroad
Currently, there are more people infected with Covid-19 in the health system than in trips abroad, new figures show.
Some 120 people, 51 patients and 69 employees acquired the virus in a healthcare setting over the past fortnight, the latest report from the Center for Health Protection Surveillance shows.
This compares with 119 travel-related cases reported to HPSC during the period, a figure that includes people who acquired the disease from abroad and those who acquired it from them.
A total of 1,717 cases were identified during the 14-day period, of which the largest category was 872 people who were close contacts of confirmed cases. Some 387 cases involve community transmission, meaning the source of the infection is unknown, while 220 cases remain under investigation.
In Dublin, the incidence of the disease in 14 days has increased to 60.2 per 100,000 inhabitants (811 cases). Kildare and Limerick have higher incidences (66.5 and 61.6) but the incidence in Dublin West is even higher, 74. Only five countries in Europe have a higher incidence than this.
While new cases were recorded in all Irish counties, Sligo had fewer than five, giving a low nationwide incidence of 3.1. The national incidence is 36.06.
During the fortnight, 59 patients were hospitalized and three required admission to the ICU. There were 191 cases among health workers.
The latest epidemiological report from the HPSC shows that 73 cases occurred among people 65 to 74 years old, 54 among people 75 to 84 years old, and 29 among people 85 and older.
No deaths were recorded during the period.
Ireland has the lowest joint death rate from Covid-19 in Europe today, according to new data.
Along with seven other countries, Ireland has a 14-day cumulative death rate of zero per 100,000 inhabitants, the latest update from the European Center for Disease Control shows.
The other countries with a death rate of zero are Austria, Norway, Finland, Luxembourg, Iceland, Cyprus, and Liechtenstein.
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