NEW DATA SHOWS CORK COVID-19 HOTSPOTS
LATEST SET OF 14-DAY DATA SHOWS FERMOY LOCAL ELECTORAL AREA HAS THE HIGHEST INCIDENCE RATE IN CORK
NEW data released by the Department of Health last Saturday has revealed that the Fermoy Local Electoral Area (LEA) had the highest 14-day incidence of Covid-19 per 100,000 head of population in Cork County.
The data, which is available to view at the Covid-19 Data Hub, (https://covid19ireland-geohive.hub.arcgis.com), is drawn from information collected across each of the 166 LEA’s in the country over the first fortnight of this month (September 1-14).
For the first time the new portal allows people to type in their LEA and check on the prevalence of the virus in their particular area on an interactive map in line with what the Department said was “an increasing desire for Covid-19 incidence rates to be published at a local level (below county level) on a frequent and timely basis.”
The data for the Fermoy LEA, which according to the 2016 census has a population of 36,406, recorded nine confirmed Covid-19 cases over the two-week period, returning incidence rate of 24.7 cases per 100,000 of population.
While a somewhat concerning statistic in its own right, it is considerably lower than the national incidence rate, which at the time the data was released stood at 52.8 cases per 100,000.
The Cork City South West LEA (population 47,049) recorded the second highest rate in the county with 10 confirmed cases returning an incidence rate of 21.3 per 100,000 of population, while the Skibbereen – West Cork LEA (population 30,281) recorded five cases, a 14-day incidence rate of 16.5 per 100,000.
Six cases were confirmed the Cork City-South Central
LEA (population 38,667) an incidence rate of 15.5, while the Cobh LEA (population 34,117) reported five cases an incidence rate of 14.7 per 100,000 head of population.
The Department pointed out that for a proportion of the notified cases, their location on the map may reflect their place of work, rather than their home address.
Where the number of cases recorded over the period within a particular LEA fell below five the Department said the incidence vale was not shown or suppressed “to avoid identifying individuals and to minimise the risk to their confidentiality and privacy” in line with advice from the Central Statistics Office.
These included the Mallow/ Kanturk and Macroom LEA’s, where no 14-day incidence rates were available.
Announcing publication of the new 14-day data, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said he understood that people wanted more detained information about the virus, the impact it is having on their communities and the country as a whole.
“The Covid-19 Data Hub now offers regularly updated Local Electoral Area data in order to fulfil this very real desire that is out there for transparency around this virus and its impact. Transparency is a key cornerstone of Ireland’s response to this pandemic. At this crucial time, it matters more than ever,” said Minister Donnelly.
“I would like to commend the tireless commitment of those behind the scenes working on bringing timely, localised information to the general public at this critical time for public health surveillance. Thanks to them, compared to other countries, Ireland ranks highly in terms of the level of localised data on offer to the public,” he added.