There have been a further 11 Coronavirus-related deaths and 1,754 new cases, according to figures released by the health authorities this evening.
Of the new cases announced today 12 of them are in Laois. The county’s 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 people now stands at 271.6 – the highest it has ever been since the pandemic started.
The current 14-day rate nationally is 321.3.
Of the cases notified today:
- 846 are men/900 are women
- 64% are under 45 years of age
- The median age is 35 years old
- 523 in Dublin, 296 in Cork, 180 in Galway, 104 in Mayo, 94 in Kerry and the remaining 557 cases are spread across all other counties.
As of 2pm today, 504 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 47 are in ICU. There have been 46 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said: “The most concerning trend at present is the rapidly increasing number of people being admitted to hospital – we are now admitting between 50–70 people a day to our hospital system.
“Unfortunately, we expect this to get worse before it gets better. Our health system will not continue to cope with this level of impact.
“We have also seen a significant increase in positive laboratory tests in recent days reflecting a true increase in the incidence of the disease as well as the delay in people coming forward for testing over the Christmas period.
“As our systems catch up with these effects it places significant pressure on our reporting system.
“We have always understood that numbers of positive tests or confirmed cases would be a less reliable indicator over the Christmas period. This is typical of infectious disease reporting annually over the two weeks of Christmas and New Year.
“What is clear are the measures that the Government has now mandated and the behaviours that we as individuals need to observe. Everyone needs to stay at home other than for essential work or care.”
Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said: “Tests processed and reported on a given day will normally be validated and confirmed by the HPSC the following day.
“Positive tests detected in laboratories require validation (to remove duplicates and other tests that do not create new cases) and transfer to the HPSC database before confirmation and reporting.
“A very large volume of positive tests in recent days means there is a delay in formal reporting. In excess of 9,000 additional new cases will be reported over the coming days.
“The reporting delay does not affect case management or contact tracing or our overall monitoring and modelling of the pandemic.”
Health authorities are aiming for 25,000 vaccinations to be completed in the Republic of Ireland by the end of next week.
The first vaccination in this country was carried out on Tuesday with today seeing doses administered to healthcare staff in Cork.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme, HSE CEO Paul Reid said that Ireland has so far taken delivery of 40,000 vaccine doses and that, as of last night 1,800 had been administered.
The first batch of 2,000 doses were distributed to four hospitals with a further 2,000 today and this weekend being sent to the South/Southwest Hospital Group.
“What we’ll be doing next week is moving into 25 nursing homes and across a further 17 hospitals, all hospital groups. So by the end of the next week we will have vaccines utilised for about 25,000 completed,” Reid said.
New Cases in Laois
- December 31 – 12
- December 30 – 50
- December 29 – 23
- December 28 – 38
- December 27 – 5
- December 26 – 2
- December 24 and 25 – 45
- December 23 – 12
- December 22 – 10
- December 21 – 13
- December 20 – 1
- December 19 – 19
- December 18 – 11
- December 17 – 10
- December 16 – 23
14-day case rate in Laois per 100,000 population
- December 31 – 271.6
- December 30 – 269.2
- December 29 – 237.3
- December 28 – 225.6
- December 27 – 186.5
- December 26 – 190.6
- December 24 and 25 – Unknown
- December 23 – 207.8
- December 22 – 194.8
- December 21 – 186.5
- December 20 – 173.6
- December 19 – 174.7
- December 18 – 152.3
- December 17 – 149.9
- December 16 – 141.7
New cases in Laois during past 14 days
- December 31 – 230
- December 30 – 228
- December 29 – 201
- December 28 – 191
- December 27 – 158
- December 26 – 161
- December 24 and 25 – Unknown
- December 23 – 176
- December 22 – 165
- December 21 – 158
- December 20 – 147
- December 19 – 148
- December 18 – 129
- December 17 – 127
- December 16 – 120
SEE ALSO – Check out our 2020 Remembered series here
