Covid case averages in Cavan continue to fall

On Monday the Health Protection Surveillance Centre was notified of 90 additional deaths related to COVID-19, all but one of which deaths occurred in January.

Both the 5-Day Moving Average of new Covid cases in Cavan and the 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population have continued to fall.

The 5-Day Moving Average now stands at 21, while the 14-day incidence rate is 737.8 up to midnight on January 25.

There have been 562 new infections reported in the past two weeks, with seven cases reported in the latest Health Protection Surveillance Centre update.

On Monday the Health Protection Surveillance Centre was notified of 90 additional deaths related to COVID-19, all but one of which deaths occurred in January.

The median age of those who died is 83 years and the age range is 48-99 years.

There has been a total of 3,066 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland to date.

The latest update also confirmed 928 confirmed new cases of COVID-19 in Ireland. Of the cases notified 418 are men and 506 are women, with half under 45 years of age and with a median age of 44

Of the new 928 cases, 257 were identified in Dublin, 115 in Cork, 71 in Louth, 53 in Galway, 45 in Limerick and the remaining 387 cases are spread across all other counties.

There are 1,750 COVID-19 patients being treated in hospital, 216 in ICU. There were 65 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said Covid was having a “severe impact” on the most vulnerable in our society.

“We must continue the good work we are doing to suppress it,” he said, noting that the decline in daily incidence of COVID-19 has begun. However the volume of disease in communities remains “very high”.

“To date we have reported 96,000 cases in January 2021, which has already passed the total of 93,500 cases reported in 2020. Indeed, public health doctors in the Midlands reported a total of 4,000 cases in the first 8 months of 2020 and another 4,000 cases in the first four weeks of 2021,” said Dr Holohan.

Through the enhanced public health surveillance programme, officials have identified six additional cases linked to the Southern African variant of concern. “All cases are being followed up by public health teams in line with the latest ECDC guidance published on the 21st January.

“The downturn in incidence has been achieved through the determination of people across the country to stay at home, to work from home and to avoid meeting and socialising with others. It is imperative that everyone continues to strictly adhere to the public health advice to protect ourselves and our loved ones from this highly-infectious disease,” he said.