Eight days with no Covid-19 case
UP until last Friday Sligo was the only county to go more than one week without a new confirmed case of Covid-19.
According to statistics released by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, Sligo did not record a new case since May 13th, over 8 days up until the release of the figures.
Currently the county has recorded 129 cases of the novel coronavirus, up until May 24 th.
In contrast, there are 349 more cases than Sligo in neighbouring Donegal, with a total of 478 cases there, while in Connacht, Mayo has recorded the most cases with 568.
As the county enters its second week of reopening the economy with Phase One, impacts of such openings of construction sites, gardening centres, hardware shops and other outlets, are likely not to be seen until next week.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) will study figures and will discuss with government whether it is safe to proceed with the planned entering of Phase Two on June 8th next.
From then people will be able to travel up to 20 kilometres away from their homes as opposed to the 5 kilometre limit which was in place since May 5 th. Also, up to four people may visit another household for a short period of time but everyone must keep at least 2 metres apart from people they don’t live with.
From June 8th, small businesses, marts and libraries will be able to reopen, with social distancing to remain in place.
Meanwhile, as the first phase saw construction workers and others return to work, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection issued payments valued at €202.8m to 579,400 people in respect of their application for the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP).
This was a reduction of 5,200 on the number of people paid at the same point last week
Last week, some 44,000 people closed their claim for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment of which about 35,600 reported that they were returning to work.
The number of people in receipt of Pandemic Unemployment Payment on 26 th May in Sligo stands at 7,400 down one hundred on the previous week.
The number of employees who closed their Pandemic Unemployment Payment since 16 th May in Sligo is 500.
Nationally, there are 46,500 people medically certified for receipt of a Covid-19 related Illness Benefit payment of which 26,200 are female and 20,300 are male.
The number of people in Sligo who are medically certified for receipt of Enhanced Illness Benefit due to Covid-19 on May 25 th was 400, up from 350 on the previous week.
The highest sector with people medically certified for receipt of the Covid-19 Illness Benefit payment was Human Health and Social Work (10,300), followed by Wholesale and Retail Trade (9,900) and Manufacturing (6,300).