The proportion of overall Covid-19 cases attributed to healthcare workers has continued to decline, according to latest statistical data released on Friday.

In the week ending February 12th, there were 261 such cases, the lowest weekly figure since early December.

More promising still is that the percentage of cases accounted for by the sector has fallen from 21 per cent of all confirmed diagnoses in the week ending January 22nd to just to 5.6 per cent.

Hospital Report

The data is contained in the 24th Central Statistics Office (CSO) Covid information bulletin.

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It points to other positive trends too, which while not formally attributed to any cause would likely be associated with public adherence to ongoing restrictions and possibly to the vaccination roll out.

Hospitalisation rates have been decreasing since the week ending January 15th from a peak of 1,348 to the latest CSO bulletin figure of 348. ICU admissions have also been declining since the week ending January 8th, (126 to 12).

The number of Covid-19 cases for the week to February 12th was 4,686, a decrease of 27 per cent (1,746 cases) from the previous week. In spite of this, health officials have been concerned about a recent plateau in infection rates.

The CSO noted it was the fifth week in a row that Leitrim has recorded fewer than 50 new cases, and the third week in a row for Roscommon.

Contacts

The average number of contacts per positive case per week was two in the latest data compared to three in early January, suggesting greater levels of social distancing and restriction observance.

In the week to February 12th, 191 people died with 91 per cent in the 65 years and over age group.

In the last four weeks 7,259 cases have been linked to an outbreak and of these 2,120 (29 per cent) were in nursing homes; 1,373 (19 per cent) were in hospital or a community hospital and long-stay units; and 506 (7 per cent) in residential institutions.

The over-80 age group made up 21 per cent of all cases linked to an outbreak over this period.

A further 1,260 cases (17 per cent) were linked to workplace outbreaks.