Covid-19 Wednesday: 94 deaths, 1,013 new cases

THE Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 94 additional deaths related to Covid-19.

Of these deaths, 47 occurred in February, 44 occurred in January, 2 in December and 1 in November.

The median age of those who died is 82 years and the age range is 36-100 years.

There has been a total of 3,512 Covid-19- related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight, Tuesday 2nd February, the HPSC has been notified of 1,013 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 199,430* confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.

Of the cases notified today:

• 465 are men / 543 are women
• 56% are under 45 years of age
• The median age is 41 years old
• 337 in Dublin, 96 in Galway, 65 in Cork, 60 in Kildare, 48 in Louth and the remaining 407 cases are spread across all other counties. **

As of 2pm today, 1,334 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 203 are in ICU. There were 66 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Dr Tony Holohan, chief medical officer, Department of Health said: 'At the outset of this pandemic, as a global community we knew much less about COVID-19 than we do now. We did not know then that today we would have a portfolio of approved vaccines to mitigate the worst effects of Covid-19, adding to our toolkit of public health measures such as social distancing, reducing contacts, mask-wearing, cough/sneeze hygiene and washing our hands.

'Now more than ever, as we are continuing to see the tragic effects of the recent surge of Covid-19 infection in the form of mortality, hospitalisation and ICU admission, we should remember the public health advice that has carried us so far in this pandemic, and helped us to suppress Covid-19 together successfully in the past.

'It is the collective hard work and ongoing sacrifice of people across Ireland in following these public health measures that will keep us all safe at this time, as we look ahead to the increased rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine on the horizon. Keep it up, and encourage others to do the same. In short: the present is the time to protect yourself and stay safe, in order to receive your vaccine in the future.'

The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community.

*Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 7 confirmed cases. The figure of 199,430 confirmed cases reflects this.

**County data should be considered provisional as the national Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting System (CIDR) is a dynamic system and case details are continually being validated and updated.

Today’s cases, 5-day moving average of new cases, 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population and new cases in last 14 days (as of midnight 02 February 2021) (incidence rate based on Census 2016 county population)

~The 5-day moving average of the number of new cases provides an appropriate indicator of current daily case numbers within a county. It takes account of any validation of cases for previous days and smooths out daily/weekend fluctuations in case numbers.

• 7 day incidence is 174.7
• 5-day moving average is 1,121