One local area has eighth highest rate of COVID in country

One local area is now among the ten in the country with the worst rates of COVID-19 per population.

New figures released last night show that Moate had the eighth-highest rate of COVID-19 cases of the 166 electoral areas in the country.

In the fortnight from February 16 to March 1, there were 83 new cases in the Moate electoral area, which includes Moate, Mount Temple, Tang, Drumraney and Ballymore, and stretches south east as far as Tyrrellspass, north as far as Rathowen and east to the outskirts of Mullingar.

This represents a rate of 450 per 100,000 population.

It’s no surprise that one of the four electoral areas in Westmeath has been included in the worst-performing areas, as the county itself has moved in recent weeks from having one of the lowest rates of COVID-19 in the country to experiencing one of the highest.

Last night, Westmeath had the third highest rate of COVID-19 per population in the last fortnight, behind only Offaly and Longford.

The neighbouring Tullamore electoral area, which includes Clara and Ballycumber, was also among the worst ten in the country, at seventh position, whilst the Birr electoral area, which covers Doon and Ferbane, had the fifth highest rate in the country.

Elsewhere in Westmeath, there were 49 new cases in the Athlone electoral area of Westmeath during the fortnight from February 16 to March 1 – a rate of 215.9 per 100,000, slightly above the national average of 201.2 per 100,000.

With a rate of 238.8, Mullingar has the third highest rate in the county. There were 62 cases in that electoral area in the last fortnight.

And the Kinnegad electoral area was the best performing and the only one in Westmeath with a rate below the national average. It had 32 new cases in the past fortnight, representing a rate of 147.6 per 100,000.

In Roscommon, it is the Athlone electoral area which now has the highest rate of COVID-19 in that county, although the rate remains below the national average.

During January, the Athlone electoral area of Roscommon consistently displayed some of the country’s lowest COVID-19 rates.

Now, however, it had a rate of 180.2 per 100,000, after 36 new cases emerged in the fortnight concerned.

The Roscommon town electoral area had the lowest rate in the county, at 101.2 (23 new cases), with Boyle with a rate of 109.9 per 1000,000 (24 new cases) In the middle of the three electoral areas in the county.

Nationally, the areas with the lowest rate of COVID-19 per population was Listowel in Kerry (20.9), followed by Skibbereen-West Cork (26.4)

WORST TEN ELECTORAL AREAS

Rate of new cases per 100,000 population (February 16-March 1)

Galway City Central 767.7

Limerick City East 608.3

Longford 579.6

Ballymun-Finglas 523.5

Birr 498.5

Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart 461.7

Tullamore 459.5

Moate 450

Donegal 426.5

Dublin North Inner City 414