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Medical Director Tony Holohan has warned that recent progress in suppressing the spread of Covid-19 is at risk after a further increase in the number of cases in recent days.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) reported six new deaths and 456 new cases on Saturday night. This brings the total number of disease-related deaths in the Republic to 1,978 with the total number of confirmed cases here now at 67,526.
Releasing the data on Saturday night, Dr. Holohan said: “Analysis of today’s data shows that the five-day moving average of the number of cases has increased from 354 to 392.
“We have seen higher figures in recent days than we expected based on the encouraging trends of the last three weeks.
“We are concerned that this progress is at risk. We have to remember that the virus is still very active in the community and we cannot lose our guard. Nphet will continue to closely monitor the situation for the next few days.
“We all need to focus on what we can do to stop the spread of this disease; wash our hands regularly, cover our faces, stay away from others, avoid crowds, limit our social network, know the symptoms, isolate ourselves, and contact a GP if we have them. Stay home and restrict our movements if you are a close contact from a confirmed case. “
Of the cases reported on Saturday:
- 210 are men, 246 are women
- 69% are under 45 years old
- The average age is 33 years.
- 151 are in Dublin, 38 in Limerick, 27 in Cork, 27 in Donegal, 27 in Galway and the remaining 186 cases are distributed in another 20 counties.
A total of 254 Covid-19 patients were reported to be in hospital on Sunday, of whom 33 are in an ICU. The positivity rate for the virus is now 3.6 percent in the past seven days, according to the government. data center.
On Saturday, Professor Philip Nolan, Nphet’s chief modeler, said that keeping the country at Level 3 “would have resulted in at least 1,200 hospitalizations” and 150 deaths per month. “Things that keep boiling tend to boil,” he said on Twitter in response to an article in the Irish Times on Saturday.
Separately, Mr. Holohan has warned the Government that the number of coronavirus cases in older people and in nursing homes, despite the Level 5 lockdown, remains a concern.
A quiet Temple Bar, Dublin on Friday during the closing of Level 5. Photo: Gareth Chaney / Collins
In a letter sent last week, Mr. Holohan said that while key indicators of the disease were improving, it was still “not possible to draw substantive conclusions about the trajectory of the disease at this time.”
Holohan said that a higher proportion of cases reported in the previous fortnight were in the age group over 65. “In the last seven days, 11.9 percent of the reported cases were over 65 years old. This compares with 7.6 percent of the cases reported in the seven days to October 15 ”.
He said that in the week leading up to October 31, there were 56 open groups associated with nursing homes and 33 associated with hospitals.
Data released this week shows that the virus is spreading at different speeds throughout the Republic. Buncrana in Co Donegal continues to have the highest 14-day incidence rate in the state, nearly four times the national average.
The most recent data from the Health Protection Surveillance Center (HPSC) for the two weeks from October 27 to November 9 examines the number of people infected per 100,000 inhabitants per area, allowing a better understanding of the transmission rate than direct case numbers.
Buncrana registered a rate of 536.5 cases per 100,000, compared to almost 595 on November 2. The second highest rate was also recorded in Co Donegal, in Letterkenny, which had a rate of 409.5 cases per 100,000.
The national rate has been gradually declining since the switch to tighter restrictions and stood at 135 on Thursday, down from a high of 310. (Search for coronavirus: Check how Covid-19 is spreading in your area).
Gardaí operates a Covid-19 restrictions checkpoint on O’Connell Street, Dublin, this weekend. Photograph: Gareth Chaney / Collins
Christmas
On Friday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin confirmed that the government was planning a gradual exit from the shutdown in early December.
This would allow families to celebrate Christmas together where people live in different counties and, to some extent, for people to get together and socialize with friends.
However, Mr Martin said that people would not go “to the whip” or to the Christmas parties when Ireland came out of the lockdown next month.
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