Cork on right side of COVID league
CORK CASES OF 217 PER 100,000 POPULATION ARE AMONG THE LOWEST RATES IN THE COUNTRY
FIGURES released by the HSE on Tuesday evening revealed that a total of 27 people with either suspected or confirmed instances of the Coronavirus were under the care of the Cork University and Mercy Hospitals.
Broken down, the figures, contained in the HSE’s daily operations update of acute hospitals on their website (www. hse.ie), showed there were 14 confirmed and six suspected COVID-19 cases at the CUH and one confirmed and six suspected cases at the Mercy.
The report showed there were two patients with COVID-19 in the critical care unit at the CUH, and one each in the Mercy and Bons Secours. One person with suspected COVID-19 was being treated at the CUH.
The latest data available from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) revealed that as of last Sunday 1,177 confirmed cases of COVID-19 had been recorded in Cork. This represents 5.4% of the total number of Irish cases, with Cork having the third highest tally of all counties in the State.
Conversely, the HPSC provisional figures showed Cork had a COVID-19 incident rate (per 100,000) of 216.8 – the seventh lowest of all the 26 counties. Cavan has the highest incident rate at 911, followed by Dublin at 791.9, with Waterford the lowest at 119.6.
The HSPC figures showed of the national total of 21,659 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday evening, 1,478 were located in the HSE South area, representing 6.8% of the total number.
The figures also showed the total number of people across the country hospitalised with COVID-19 was 2,879, the total admitted to ICU was 369. They had also identified 706 outbreaks/clusters with 7,179 associated cases.
Just as The Corkman was going to print on Wednesday evening the HPSC released new figures revealing that a further 37 people with COVID-19 had sadly passed away, bringing the total number of Coronavirus related deaths in Ireland to 1,375.
They also confirmed an additional 265 confirmed cases.
Of the total number of confirmed cases, 6,393 were associated with healthcare workers.
The HSPC said that community transmission accounted for 62% of the total cases, close contact 35% and travel abroad 3%.
Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Tony Holohan said the World Health Organisation has advised that a likely future scenario in the dynamic of COVID-19 was recurring epidemic waves interspersed with periods of low level transmission.
“This means that when Ireland eases social distancing restrictions, we may have periods of time when the numbers of people infected increases significantly,” he said. “This is why it is vitally important that easing of social distancing restrictions is accompanied by a high level of adherence to the fundamental, individual behaviours needed to guard against transmission of the virus. We have to adapt our behaviours in order to live safely with COVID-19,” said Dr Holohan.
Deputy CMO Dr Ronan Glynn, said that 78% of people who have been diagnosed to date with COVID-19 had recovered.
“This is very welcome and in line with international experience. However, the course of this disease in any one individual remains unpredictable. It is important that we are all aware of the risks and know how to prevent its spread,” he said.