Statement from the National Public Health Emergency Team - Thursday 15 October
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From: Department of Health
- Published on: 15 October 2020
- Last updated on: 15 October 2020
- Hospital statistics
- Gender of patients
- Age range affected
- How COVID-19 is spreading
- Hospitalised cases by age group
- Cases by county
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 3 additional deaths related to COVID-19.
There has been a total of 1,838 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.
As of midnight Wednesday 14 October the HPSC has been notified of 1,205 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There has now been a total of 46,429* confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.
(*Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 19 confirmed cases. The figure of 46,429 confirmed cases reflects this.)
Of the cases notified today:
- 614 are men / 590 are women
- 71% are under 45 years of age
- the median age is 34 years old
- 288 in Dublin, 173 Cork, 123 in Meath, 97 in Galway, 63 in Cavan and the remaining 461 cases are spread across all remaining counties
As of 2pm today 241 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 29 are in ICU. There have been 24 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said:
"There have been further increases across all key indicators of COVID-19 and the growth rate of the epidemic has accelerated since NPHET last met.
"Cases notified over the past week have increased by 82% compared with the previous 7 days, from 3,514 to 6,382 cases.
"The positivity rate over the past 7 days is now 6.2% and is continuing to increase.
"The 14-day incidence in those aged 65 years and older has increased from 92.9 per 100,000 population on 7 October to 125 per 100,000 population on 14 October.
"The number of hospitalisations are increasing faster than the exponential growth modelling predicted. This indicates a rapidly deteriorating disease trajectory nationally."
Dr. Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said:
"There is now a deteriorating epidemiological landscape across the EU. Many EU countries are experiencing increasing hospitalisations, ICU admissions and deaths related to COVID-19.
"Our priorities remain focused on protecting the medically and socially vulnerable, protecting childcare and education settings and preventing unnecessary disruption to non-COVID health and social care services."
Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said:
"The reproduction number appears to have increased and is now at 1.4 nationally. Modelling shows that if current trends continue, by October 31st, the number of cases notified daily would be in the range of 1,800 – 2,500 cases with over 400 people in hospital."
Dr Colm Henry, Chief Clinical Officer, HSE, said:
"The challenge we have now is much greater than earlier this year, as we are trying to suppress COVID-19 while maintaining our non-COVID services and providing safe environments in our acute settings.
"The higher the community transmission the more difficult it is to protect medically vulnerably people in all heathcare settings. We appeal to everyone to play their part in protecting patients, healthcare workers and frontline services."
The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community.
ENDS
Today’s cases, 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population and new cases in last 14 days (as of midnight 14 October 2020) (incidence rate based on Census 2016 county population)
- Further validation is required on 13 of today’s cases and they are not yet assigned to a county.
Hospital statistics
- All statistics measured at midnight on Tuesday 13 October.
Gender of patients
- All statistics measured at midnight on Tuesday 13 October.
Age range affected
- All statistics measured at midnight on Tuesday 13 October.
How COVID-19 is spreading
- All statistics measured at midnight on Tuesday 13 October.
Note:
In the event that a person tests positive for COVID-19 and hasn't been abroad or had contact with another confirmed case in Ireland, that's known as community transmission.
In the event that a person who tests positive for COVID-19 can be linked to another confirmed case in Ireland, that's known as close contact.
Hospitalised cases by age group
- All statistics measured at midnight on Tuesday 13 October.
Cases by county
Note: The Health Protection Surveillance Centre have advised that in the process of validating data and reviewing addresses, county totals may change due to cases being reassigned to another county. Totals can go up or down.
- All statistics measured at midnight on Tuesday 13 October.