Level 5 beckons as Wexford records 289 cases in a week

WEXFORD was preparing for drastically increased Covid-19 restrictions yesterday (Monday) evening, with the county having seen it’s worst week in terms of new cases since the Covid-19 pandemic first hit.

At the time of going to print, the government cabinet were meeting to discuss the level of restrictions to be imposed on the whole country with rumours pointing towards everything from Level 4 with added conditions to a complete Level 5 lockdown.

Last week saw another major surge in cases in the model county with a total of 289 new cases being confirmed by the Department of Health between Monday and Sunday. This followed on from a total of 117 cases the week before, giving Wexford a 14 day total of 406 and an incidence rate of 271.2 per 100,000 population.

Last week’s breakdown of local electoral areas put Gorey as the 5th worst in the country in terms of cases per head of population with 146 cases recorded for the 14 day period up to October 12 putting it at 533.8 cases per 100,000 population.

While hospitalisations had remained quite low, there has been a steady rise in the past week with the latest figures showing 6 people hospitalised at Wexford General Hospital as of 8 p.m. on Sunday night, one of whom was in critical care. While Wexford had previously been rooted to the bottom of the table when it came to confirmed cases, we are now firmly mid-table with ten counties now recording lower instances of the virus.

While valid concerns have been raised in relation to the toll that another lockdown will inevitably take on the economy and people’s mental health, there’s very much a feeling that Wexford’s case numbers are beginning to spiral and need to be brought under control.