Spike in new Covid cases in County Cavan in recent days

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) has today been notified of two additional deaths related to COVID-19, as people are being urged to "limit their contacts".

It brings to 2,126, the total number of people in Ireland who have lost their lives as a result of the virus this year.

As of midnight on Sunday, December 13, the HPSC has been notified of 264 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Less than five of those were in County Cavan but 23 were reported over the weekend.

There were 85 positive test results in County Cavan in the 14 days to midnight on December 13. It translates to an infection rate of 111.6 cases per 100,000 of population. The national average is 83.4/100K.

In the figures announced over the weekend, there were 10 new cases reported in County Cavan yesterday and 13 on Saturday.

Speaking yesterday, Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, expressed concern about the rising level of Covid cases - with 429 new cases confirmed yesterday.

"429 is a large number of cases by the standard of recent weeks and the five day moving average has now increased above 300 per day.

“Our efforts in Level Five in recent weeks brought the 14-day incidence rate down to 78 per 100,000 population, put us in a position of having the lowest disease incidence in Europe and ultimately protected many people and saved many lives.

“Take today’s figures as a sign that we all must now reduce our social contacts, limit our interactions with those outside our households, weigh the risks of what socialising we are planning over the next two weeks, so that we can all have as safe a Christmas as possible.”

There have now been a total of 76,449 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland since the virus was first confirmed here on February 29.

Of the cases notified today:

- 128 are men / 134 are women

- 65% are under 45 years of age

- The median age is 36 years old

- The confirmed cases include 79 in Dublin, 24 in Donegal, 19 in Kerry, 18 in Limerick, 14 in Kildare, 14 in Wexford and the remaining 96 cases are spread across 16 other counties.

As of 2pm today, 215 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, 33 of whom are in ICU. There have been 17 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.