Another difficult week for county on Covid front

IT’S been another difficult week for County Wexford in the battle against Covid-19, with figures remaining quite high. Despite the county seeing a total of 915 new cases of the virus recorded last week, it’s still a significant improvement on the week before which saw over 1,700 cases. Wexford, however, still remains the fifth highest 14 day incidence rate in the country.

With the data showing that figures are finally starting to move in the right direction, unfortunately the focus has shifted to the numbers in our hospital. Wexford General remains under extreme pressure, with the latest figures showing a huge 67 people hospitalised with the virus and 9 people who are extremely ill in the critical care unit. Emergency actions are being taken, but the hospital remains under serious pressure and staff are urging members of the public to help them out by strictly adhering to the government guidelines over the coming weeks.

Last week’s highest daily total came on Monday with 305 and by Sunday we had seen our lowest with 43. However, the real story is in the increase of hospital numbers from 29 to 67 over the course of the same week.

Last week’s breakdown by Local Electoral Area (LEA) gave us a snapshot of cases in the period from December 29 to January 11. It showed Enniscorthy as being the LEA with the 6th highest incidence rate in the Republic having seen 754 cases and a rate of 2,766.6. Meanwhile, for the same period, Gorey saw 457 cases and a rate of 1,670.9; Kilmuckridge 328 and 1,961.1; Wexford 322 and 1,106; Rosslare 174 and 807.8 and New Ross 519 and 1,871.

The most recent death toll figures for Wexford made for grim reading too. The model county has seen an additional 9 deaths over the past month according to CSO figures. On December 11, Wexford had seen a Covid death toll of 28. This rose to 37 in the latest CSO report, which covers a period up to January 8.

While hopefully case numbers will continue to move in the right direction, more people are becoming seriously ill with Covid-19. The Chief Medical Officer has warned that the UK strain of Covid-19 in the community is much easier to pass on and people are yet again reminded to restrict their movements where possible and stay home. The hope is that if case numbers continue to decrease, eventually so too will the pressure on our hospital and frontline workers at Wexford General.