Covid-19 Thursday: no deaths, 93 new cases

There have been no new deaths reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre today.

There has been a total of 1,777 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight Wednesday 26th August, the HPSC has been notified of 93 confirmed cases of Covid-19. There is now a total of 28,453* confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.

Of the cases notified today:

52 are men / 41 are women

70% are under 45 years of age

73 are confirmed to be associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case

12 cases have been identified as community transmission

34 in Dublin, 7 in Kildare, 6 in Donegal, 6 in Laois, 5 in Limerick, 5 in Wexford and the remaining 30 cases are in Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Louth, Meath. Monaghan, Offaly, Tipperary, Westmeath and Wicklow.

The HSE is working to identify any contacts the patients may have had to provide them with information and advice to prevent further spread.

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

Dr Ronan Glynn, acting chief medical officer, Department of Health, said: ‘We continue to see a slow growth of Covid-19 in Ireland.

‘The most effective action we can take to reduce the transmission rate of this virus is to reduce our number of close contacts. If we do this and keep practising the other safe behaviours by continuing to physical distance, avoid crowds, wash our hands, cover our coughs and sneezes, wear a face mask where appropriate and download the COVID Tracker app, we have a real chance of slowing the spread of the virus to where we want it to be.’

Professor Philip Nolan, chair of the NPHET Irish epidemiological modelling advisory group, said: ‘The R-number is now between 1 and 1.2. While this is an improvement on what we have seen recently, it is still not where we want to be. We are still seeing growing transmission of the disease and we need to bring the R-number back below 1 if we are to effectively slow the spread of COVID-19 and suppress its transmission.’

Dr John Cuddihy, director, health protection surveillance centre, HSE said: ‘We are identifying outbreaks in a number of different settings such as private homes, workplaces and social settings.

‘Congregated settings are ideal environments for this disease to spread between people. We all must avoid such congregations if we are going to break the chains of transmission of the virus.’

• To watch or listen to the Southern Star Coronavirus Podcast, please search Coronavirus Podcast at the top of this page or see the Southern Star on YouTube. This week’s podcast features an interview with Patrick Murphy, the ceo of the Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation (ISWFPO) on the huge crisis facing the industry, with a preview of this week’s paper, and music from local singer/songwriter Brian Casey.

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

*Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 3 confirmed cases. The figure of 28,453 confirmed cases reflects this.