Local Covid-19 incidence rate rises by 70% in a week

Westmeath's 14 day Covid-19 incidence rates has increased by almost 70 percent in the space of a week.

That's according to new figures published by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre. The figures revealed that in the two week period between August 26 and midnight September 8 there were 17 confirmed cases of the virus in Westmeath, giving the county a 14 incidence rate of 19.2 per 100,000 people. While the figure is just over half the national average of 38.01, the county's incidence rate a week earlier was 11.3 per 100,000.

Dublin has the highest two week incidence rate (67.8), followed by Limerick (63.1), Kildare (61.6) and Leitrim (49.9). Sligo (4.6), Mayo (6.1) and Cork (7.2) had the lowest incidence rates in the country.

Yesterday evening, the health authorities reported that a further three people with Covid-19 had died, while there were 84 more confirmed cases of the virus.

Speaking yesterday at the daily briefing, Dr Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said; “We continue to see a concerning pattern of cases, particularly in Dublin. Transmission is diffuse across the county, is in all age groups and is mainly being driven by social interaction within and between households.”

Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said; “While the reproduction number for Ireland as a whole is close to 1.0, the reproduction number for Dublin alone is approximately 1.4. We are seeing increasing case numbers in Dublin, growing close to 5% per day. If this were to continue, the number of cases would double every 14 days. Given the size of Dublin’s population it is essential we prevent any further spread now – by limiting our social contacts and taking precautions during any essential contacts.”