Six more COVID-19 related deaths and 772 new cases confirmed

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has been notified of six additional deaths related to COVID-19.

There have now been a total of 1,908 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight Thursday, October 29^th, the HPSC has been notified of 772 confirmed cases of COVID-19; thirteen of these are in Kerry.

There is now a total of 61,059 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland; validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 10 confirmed cases.

The latest county-by-county breakdown, covers the period up to midnight on Wednesday, October 28th, and shows the total number of cases in Kerry now stands at 1,052.

Of the cases notified today;

• 362 are men / 406 are women
• 64% are under 45 years of age
• The median age is 36 years old
• 228 in Dublin, 120 in Cork, 50 in Meath, 41 in Donegal, 41 in Galway and the remaining 292 cases are spread across all remaining counties.

As of 2pm today 325 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 42 are in ICU. 15 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said; “The overall situation has improved, but we have to remember that these are very early days. This improvement will only be maintained if we keep going in our efforts.

“We have to remember that incidence is increasing in older age groups, who are particularly vulnerable to this disease. The way in which we can protect them is if we continue to drive down transmission across the whole population.”

Dr Desmond Hickey, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said; “As of today, Ireland has seen a reduction in its 7-day incidence rate of 36% when compared to the previous 7 days. Ireland’s progress is notable when compared to the rapidly deteriorating picture across Europe. It is paramount that we sustain and continue to drive down disease incidence as much as possible in the coming weeks.”

Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said “The reproduction number is now close to 1.0 nationally. This is the first time in a number of weeks that we have been able to report positive indicators of the disease. However, our experience to date shows this type of progress is very fragile. We should take these positive signs as an indication our efforts are starting to work, the critical thing now is to keep it up, the virus will seek out any opportunity to spread; over the next weeks let’s make sure we don’t give it that opportunity, by driving R and case numbers as low as possible.”

Dr Colm Henry, Chief Clinical Officer, HSE, said; “There has been a significant reduction in emergency presentations and admission in recent weeks, when compared with activity last year. Our Emergency Departments have in place pathways of care to keep patients and staff safe. If you need urgent or emergency care in our hospitals, this care can be provided safely.”

Today’s cases, 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population and new cases in last 14 days (as of midnight 29 October 2020) (incidence rate based on Census 2016 county population)