Covid-19 Thursday: 3 deaths, 1,205 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 1,838 Covid-19-related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight Wednesday 14th October the HPSC has been notified of 1,205 confirmed cases of Covid-19. There is now a total of 46,429* confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.

Of the cases notified today:

• 614 are men / 590 are women
• 71% are under 45 years of age
• The median age is 34 years old
• 288 in Dublin, 173 Cork, 123 in Meath, 97 in Galway 63 in Cavan and the

remaining 461 cases are spread across all remaining counties.

As of 2pm today 241 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 29 are in ICU. 24 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Dr Tony Holohan, chief medical officer, Department of Health said: ‘There has been further increases across all key indicators of Covid-19 and the growth rate of the epidemic has accelerated since NPHET last met.

‘Cases notified over the past week have increased by 82% compared with the previous 7 days, from 3,514 to 6,382 cases.

‘The positivity rate over the past 7 days is now 6.2% and is continuing to increase.’

‘The 14-day incidence in those aged 65 years and older has increased from 92.9 per 100,000 population on 7^th October to 125 per 100,000 population on the 14^th of October.

‘The number of hospitalisations are increasing faster than the exponential growth modelling predicted. This indicates a rapidly deteriorating disease trajectory nationally.’

Dr Ronan Glynn, deputy chief medical officer, Department of Health said: ‘There is now a deteriorating epidemiological landscape across the EU. Many EU countries are experiencing increasing hospitalisations, ICU admissions and deaths related to Covid-19.

‘Our priorities remain focused on protecting the medically and socially vulnerable, protecting childcare and education settings and preventing unnecessary disruption to non-Covid health and social care services.’

Professor Philip Nolan, chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said: ‘The reproduction number appears to have increased and is now at 1.4 nationally. Modelling shows that if current trends continue, by October 31^st, the number of cases notified daily would be in the range of 1,800 – 2,500 cases with over 400 people in hospital.’

Dr Colm Henry, chief clinical officer, HSE, said: ‘The challenge we have now is much greater than earlier this year, as we are trying to suppress COVID-19 while maintaining our non – Covid-19 services and providing safe environments in our acute settings.

‘The higher the community transmission the more difficult it is to protect medically vulnerably people in all heathcare settings. We appeal to everyone to play their part in protecting patients, healthcare workers and frontline services.’

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 19 confirmed cases. The figure of 46,429 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 14 October 2020) (incidence rate based on Census 2016 county population)

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