Covid-19 Saturday: 3 deaths, 248 new cases

THE Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 3 additional deaths related to Covid-19.

There has been a total of 2,123 Covid-19-related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight Friday 11th December, the HPSC has been notified of 248 confirmed cases of Covid-19. There is now a total of 75,756* confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.

Of the cases notified today:

• 124 are men / 122 are women
• 67% are under 45 years of age
• The median age is 33 years old
• 99 in Dublin, 21 in Louth, 16 in Limerick,15 in Meath, 13 in Cavan and the remaining 83 cases are spread across 20 other counties.

As of 2pm today 185 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 31 are in ICU. There were 10 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Dr Tony Holohan, chief medical officer, Department of Health, said: ‘Ireland currently has the lowest incidence in Europe and has protected against the significant mortality and severe illness that many European countries, as well as the United States, have experienced.

‘Our younger generation led the way, with the incidence in the 19-24 year age group reduced from 432 per 100,000 population to 41 per 100,000 population. This is an enormous achievement.

‘We all need to recognise how well our younger generation has reduced their contacts and helped to protect the whole population. We all now need to follow this example in the weeks ahead.

‘We can do this by planning from now for Christmas to reduce our social contacts and limit our activities to those that are essential and most important to us.”

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 reclassification of 1 probable case to confirmed. The figure of 75,756 confirmed cases reflects this.

Today’s cases, 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population and new cases in last 14 days (as of midnight 11 December 2020) (incidence rate based on Census 2016 county population)

*County field for one of today’s cases remains under investigation.

• 
  To watch or listen to the Southern Star Coronavirus Podcast, please search ‘Coronavirus Podcast’ at the top right of this page or see the Southern Star on YouTube. This week’s podcast is an interview with Bandon native and Sunday Times political correspondent and columnist Justine McCarthy. Justine, a highly respected campaigning journalist, talks about growing up in West Cork, starting her  journalism career in The Southern Star and some of the incredible stories she has covered in her wide-ranging and very impressive career. And this week's music – from Clare singer Susan O’Neill and singer-songwriter Mick Flannery – is their duet Baby Talk,  which won ‘Best Original Folk Track of The Year’ at the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards last week.

• You can subscribe to the Southern Star Coronavirus podcast which is available, in audio and video versions, on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.