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The country is more than halfway from lockdown with Covid cases per day and incidence rates are falling rapidly since Ireland entered Level Five.
Dr. Tony Holohan warned over the weekend that the increased number of cases was “unexpected,” but the entire country has come a long way since Oct. 22.
Counties like Cavan, which had an incidence rate per 100,000 residents of 1,055.5 when the lockdown began, now have a rate of 103.7.
Wexford, Wicklow, Leitrim, Kildare, Galway, Cork and Clare now have rates of less than 100 per 100,000 people, according to the latest Health Department data released Sunday night.
And that’s not the only place where progress has been made: here’s a look at the areas where Ireland is defeating the virus for the second time.
Incidence rate per 100,000
Ireland’s overall incidence rate per 100,000 people the night we entered lockdown 2.0 was 302.9.
Fast-forward to midnight November 14, a little more than half, and that rate is now 126.9.
Not only is it a massive drop, it’s also against trends in Europe, where most countries are in the hundreds.
And, as our detailed chart below and the video at the top of this article show, almost every county has experienced massive drops.
Cavan, Meath, Westmeath, and Cork are just a few of the places that have made incredible progress.
Take a look at the interactive story below;
New daily cases
On October 21, the day before the lockdown officially began again, Dr. Tony Holohan and the Department of Health confirmed 1,167 new cases.
Those numbers stayed high for the rest of October, but have seen a massive drop since early November.
A total of 378 cases were confirmed Sunday night which, while still high, shows a big drop in the space of just three weeks and a bit.
How is that in terms of cases per week? Take a look at our graph here that shows how the numbers are descending again.
There were 7,495 cases in the week between October 12 and October 18, ultimately leading NPHET to recommend a Level Five lockdown.
In the past week, that number dropped to 2,613 new cases, again showing the most progress.
ICU and hospital numbers
As of 2 p.m. Sunday, 249 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized, of which 31 are in the ICU. 5 additional hospitalizations in the last 24 hours.
So how does that compare to when Ireland entered a level five lockdown in October?
There were 313 COVID-19 patients hospitalized that day, of which 37 were in the ICU. An additional 20 hospitalizations were announced in the last 24 hours.
By October 26 there were 341, 38 in ICU and 16 additional hospitalizations that day.
The trend is now a downward curve but still above where NPHET wants it to be.
R number
When the lockdown began, Ireland’s R-number was estimated to be around 1.5 or even higher in Ireland.
Since then, the R number has declined rapidly and last week it was estimated to have fallen below zero.
The latest estimates suggest it could be as low as 0.7.
Whats Next?
The government will review Level Five this week after four weeks of restrictions to discuss how it goes so far.
However, Taoiseach Micheal Martin and Medical Director Dr. Tony Holohan have left little to no doubt that Level Five will last until December 1.
After that? That’s the mystery right now with level three expected before a potential shift to level two if the numbers keep dropping.
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