Five Encouraging Covid-19 Signs and Updates in Ireland One Week After Level Five Crash

We are now in a week at Level Five: a set of national coronavirus restrictions that have returned the country to a near-total lockdown.

The government chose to impose tough measures last week as fears mounted that Covid-19 cases were spiraling out of control.

Then all the graphics were pointing in the wrong direction and things didn’t look right.

Seven days later, it’s too early to say we’ve turned a corner (as Dr. Tony Holohan has reminded us), but a quick look at the data shows several encouraging signs as we continue to battle Covid-19.

Here are five encouraging updates.

1. Fall in the number of daily cases

Daily case numbers are just one indicator of our Covid-19 problem, which means they shouldn’t be treated like a gospel when it comes to examining how we’re doing.

But it’s hard not to be encouraged by yesterday’s news that 675 cases had been reported in Ireland.

Last Tuesday, for context, we reported 1,269 cases in a single day.

If we can continue to reduce the daily figures, there is definite room for optimism.

2. Hospital admissions are declining

For health chiefs, one of the most important figures when evaluating how well we are dealing with Covid-19 is the number of confirmed cases in our hospitals.

And on that front it appears that there has been a slight improvement, with two consecutive days of reductions.

Today’s hospital figures show there are 318 Covid-19 patients in Irish hospitals. Yesterday, that number was 327 and the day before it was 354.

Could we have turned the dial on the chart?

3. Slight improvement in the national rate per 100,000

When Level Five was introduced last Thursday, our 14-day national incidence rate per 100,000 was 302.49.

Things looked grim as the incidence rate continued to rise over the next few days, to a high of 309.92.

But the latest figures have shown that this figure, another key indicator for health experts, had fallen to 299.02.

Again, time will tell if this improvement is a false dawn, but it’s certainly not bad news.

4. The worst affected counties show signs of improvement

Last Thursday, the four worst counties in Ireland for 14-day incident rates were Cavan, Meath, Westmeath and Monaghan.

Cavan, where cases had skyrocketed, was of particular concern to government ministers and health advisers, with an incidence rate of 14 days per 100,000 of 1,055.5.

In a week, that number has dropped to 244.2, a notable improvement for a country on the brink of disaster a week ago.

Meath and Monaghan have also shown improvement, although Westmeath’s biweekly rate has actually increased since last Thursday.

5. We will reduce our close contact numbers

A key source of concern for the government in recent weeks was the amount of social contacts people were having, which meant that if they tested positive, there was a possibility that they could infect large numbers of people.

But this week it emerged that the average number of contacts reported by people who tested positive has decreased by 50% since the beginning of the month.

These figures could change, of course, but for now there are indications that Level Five is having an impact on the number of people we interact with, thus reducing the range of the broadcast.