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Nine deaths and seven Covid cases confirmed

Updated / Thursday, 23 Jul 2020 19:01
Nine more deaths linked to Covid-19 have been confirmed by the Dept of Health this evening
Nine more deaths linked to Covid-19 have been confirmed by the Dept of Health this evening

The Department of Health has been notified of nine deaths linked to Covid-19 and seven additional confirmed cases.

At a media briefing this evening, the acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ronan Glynn, said eight of the nine deaths are late notifications that took place in April, May and June.

Over the past 14 days, 272 cases have been notified, of which 183 have actually arisen during that period, giving a 14-day-incidence of 3.84 per 100,000 of the population.

Dr Glynn said that of those 183 cases, the median age is 39 years of age, and 58% are less than 45 years of age, while 61 of the cases were healthcare workers.

There have been a total of 471 clusters across all residential care facilities, of which 267 have been in nursing homes.

The clusters have been associated with 7,485 confirmed cases to date, of which 5,862 have been in nursing homes.

Dr Glynn said the three top priorities are getting healthcare services back up and running to the greatest extent possible, protecting the most vulnerable, and getting children back to school.

He said we are "absolutely on track" for children to return to school in September, but said it is too early to make a determination about the reopening of pubs, which he described as "one of the most high-risk environments" for potential transmission of the virus.

Dr Glynn said it is fully understandable that some people have "dropped their guard" when it comes to social distancing, but he urged people to adhere to the guidance.

Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said we have achieved "some level of stability" in relation to the spread of the virus.

Also speaking at this evening's briefing, he said that an average of one death is being confirmed each day, but added that many of those are "delayed notifications" that occurred in recent weeks.

Prof Nolan said that at present, there is only one death occurring every three to five days, while an average of 18 cases are identified each day.

All key indicators of the disease are now stable or declining, he said, with the rate of admission into intensive care also remaining low at an average of one admission every five days.

The rate of increase of Covid-19 cases recorded in late June and early July "seems to have tapered off", Prof Nolan said.

He said there was a re-emergence of outbreaks in various settings in recent weeks, and that almost half of cases were occurring in private homes.

A lot of the cases were associated with close contacts of already-known cases, which he said is a "good signal" that the test-and-trace system is detecting cases early.

Prof Nolan added that there is still a significant rate of community transmission and a decreasing rate of travel-related infections.

HSE Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry said he is concerned about the reluctance among some people to come forward for testing.

He told the briefing that there may be a sense among some younger people that they are not vulnerable, and he is concerned about the drop in the median age of those contracting the illness.

Dr Henry said more than 350,000 people have now been tested for Covid-19, and the positivity rate since the start of the pandemic was more than 20%.

This has now fallen to 0.2%, he said, which shows how well the virus has been suppressed.

He described this as a "remarkable achievement" and said the current low level of community transmission needs to be maintained.

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Meanwhile, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said that "things have stabilised" over the past ten days in relation to the spread of Covid-19.

Speaking in the Dáil earlier today, he said the reproductive rate has fallen to somewhere between 1 and 1.4.

Mr Donnelly said that while the number of new cases of the virus has been rising, and the average close contacts of five were still quite high, the recent stabilisation of the situation was "good news".

The minister said 51,000 tests had been carried out in the past seven days, with a "very low positivity rate of 0.3".

He said this suggested the prevalence of the virus in the population was low.

In Northern Ireland, for a tenth consecutive day, no further deaths relating to Covid-19 have been recorded. The official death toll remains at 546. Eight new cases have been reported there.

Additional reporting Sharon Gaffney

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