Coronavirus Irish data: Two-thirds of first 271 cases are people under 55

A further 74 cases of Covid-19 were confirmed by the National Public Health Emergency Team on Wednesday night. The new cases involve 29 women and 45 men. The total number of cases in the Republic is now 366.

It also published an analysis of the first 271 cases. Of these, 40 per cent involved men and 59 per cent are female, with 23 clusters.

To date 42 per cent of cases are travel-related; 22 per cent are associated with community transmission; 17 per cent are as a result of local transmission; and 20 per cent remain under investigation.

Two-thirds of cases were among people aged under 55 years, with almost one in four aged 35 to 55. One baby aged under one contracted the virus, but no children aged one to four years. There were four cases among children aged five to 14 years.

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One case in five involved a healthcare worker, and one-third of these cases were associated with travel.

Dublin has the highest number of cases with 129, followed by Cork (48) and Limerick (14).

The cases were also analysed by severity. Of the 271 cases, 84 (31 per cent) saw the patient hospitalised; this figure is artificially high because at the start of the outbreak all patients were sent to hospital, even if their symptoms were mild.

Six patients have required treatment in intensive care; this is 2 per cent of the overall number. There have been two confirmed deaths, giving a case fatality rate of 0.7 per cent.

Leitrim, Laois and Monaghan were the only counties not to record a case, while 15 other counties recorded fewer than five cases.

Compliance

There has been an "extraordinary level of compliance" with the social distancing measures introduced last week, chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan told a media briefing. People were showing a "high degree of understanding" in relation to symptoms, and the importance of self-isolation for people showing symptoms.

“You see it every day,” Dr Holohan said, adding that he had counted just 11 passengers on six buses on his way to work.

He said as the measures have taken effect, public health doctors have started to notice that the number of contacts of confirmed cases has grown smaller.

However, he said it was too early to know if the measures were having the desired impact, and it might be “towards the end of the month” before this would be known.

“We’re not expecting it at this point in time, but after that we’re hoping to see a slower rate of growth [in cases] than the exponential growth we’re having.”

He said the Taoiseach’s prediction of 15,000 cases by the end of the month represented an “unmitigated situation”, and he was hopeful a lower number of cases would be observed as a result of the measures taken.

Asked about reports online of a third death from the disease on Wednesday, Mr Holohan said he did not have any notification of this but it can take time for cases to “come through” in processing.