Covid-19 Wednesday: 17 deaths, 7,836 new cases

THE Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 17 additional deaths related to Covid-19, with 1,373 new cases detected in Co Cork.

There has been a total of 2,299 Covid-19-related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight, Tuesday 5th January, the HPSC has been notified of 7,836 confirmed cases of Covid-19. There is now a total of 121,154* confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.

Of the cases notified today:

• 3,740 are men / 4,078 are women
• 63% are under 45 years of age
• The median age is 36 years old
• 2,263 in Dublin, 1,373 in Cork, 496 in Louth, 345 in Limerick, 340 in Meath and the remaining 3,019 cases are spread across all other counties.

As of 2pm today, 954 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 88 are in ICU. There were 105 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Dr Tony Holohan, chief medical officer, Department of Health, said: ‘The country is in a serious phase of this surge of Covid-19. There is evidence of an increasing presence of the UK variant in Ireland. All counties have an upward trajectory of the disease. There is concerning escalation of admissions to hospital and ICU. We are very likely to see escalating mortality and ICU admissions in the coming days and weeks.

‘It has never been more important, throughout our experience of this pandemic, to stay home and only meet people outside of your household for essential purposes, always adhering to public health advice; physical distance, hand hygiene, cough/sneeze etiquette, wearing a face covering.”

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 4 confirmed cases. The figure of 121,154 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 05 January 2021) (incidence rate based on Census 2016 county population)

The following table has been included to show both positive tests and confirmed cases in the latest 14-day period. Normally, the number of confirmed cases reported on a given day correlates with the number of positive tests the preceding day, allowing for validation and removal of duplicates.

Once the delays that have arisen in recent days have been resolved, we will no longer report the laboratory test results.

Reporting over latest 14-day period (23/12/2020-06/01/2021)

7-day incidence 650.9

5-day moving average 5,524

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