The Co Mayo town of Belmullet remains the locality with the highest Covid-19 infection rate in the State, though the spread of the virus in the area has declined for a second week.
One in 50 people in Belmullet had the virus in the fortnight to January 25th, according to the latest State health figures on infections in the State’s 166 local electoral areas.
In two weeks, the infection rate in Belmullet has improved from one in 17 people who tested positive in mid-January.
Some 253 people out of a population of 12,600 tested positive for the virus, giving one of the remotest and least densely populated parts of the country an incidence rate of 2,007 cases per 100,000 people over the 14-day period. This is almost three times the national rate.
The national incidence rate over the fortnight was 721 cases per 100,000 people. The latest data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), published on Thursday, examines the 14-day incidence rate of Covid-19 up to last Monday, in each of the State's 166 electoral areas. The data is published on the Government's Covid-19 Data Hub every Thursday night. Here, we put the figures in a searchable table so you can check your area and compare it to other local electoral areas in the Republic. If you are reading this on The Irish Times app, go here to search.
The incidence rate in Belmullet has fallen sharply since a post-Christmas surge in cases in the locality, from 6,031 per 100,000 two weeks ago and 5,555 per 100,000 one week ago.
There were 253 positive cases diagnosed in Belmullet in the two-week period to January 25th compared with 700 cases in the two-week period to January 18th.
Local areas in the Border counties continue to have high infection rates with Monaghan town and and Ballybay-Clones in Monaghan recording the second and fourth highest incidence rates.
Enniscorthy in Co Wexford had the third-highest incidence rate, while Dundalk South in Co Louth had the fifth highest rate of infections, according to the latest weekly data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) published on Thursday on the Government's Covid-19 Data Hub.
Monaghan had 1,762 cases per 100,000 people, Enniscorthy 1,614 per 100,000, Ballybay-Clones 1,501 per 100,000 and Dundalk South 1,436 per 100,000 - all down significantly since last week.
Local areas in Co Monaghan account for three of the 10 most infected communities. There are two areas in Co Louth and just one in Dublin, Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart, among the 10.
The incidence rate in Tramore-Waterford City West dropped sharply to a third of what it was last week, falling from the fifth most infected local area to the 26th highest infection rate.
Carrick-on-Shannon in Co Leitrim had the lowest infection rate with 211 cases per 100,000 people, or just under a third of the national incidence rate of the disease.
