North Waterford district records highest rate of Covid-19 again

A district in North Waterford has recorded the highest rate of Covid-19 in the State for the second week in a row.

The Portlaw-Kilmacthomas local electoral area (LEA) had an incidence rate of 2,137.9 cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 people in the 14 days to December 13th, compared with the national average of 1,305.1 per 100,000.

The national average was down from 1,355.1 per 100,000 in the 14 days to December 6th.

Portlaoise in Co Laois had the second-worst incidence rate of Covid-19 in the State at 2,091.6 cases per 100,000 of the population.

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Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart in Dublin was the third-worst with a rate of 1,979.8 per 100,000. It is one of three Dublin LEAs in the 10 worst-affected areas in the country, Lucan (1,873.1) and Rush (1,868.8) being the others.

The Waterford City South LEA had the fourth-highest rate in the country at 1,953 cases per 100,000.

Newbridge in Co Kildare (1,902.4), Clonmel in Co Tipperary (1,892.2), Maynooth in Co Kildare (1,890.3) and Tullow in Co Carlow (1,828.2) make up the worst 10.

Manorhamilton in Co Leitrim had the lowest rate of Covid-19 for a second week in a row at 508.3 per 100,000, followed by Newcastle West in Co Limerick (616.4) and Kenmare in Co Kerry (622.5).

Carlow was the worst-affected county in the country (2,053.3) and the only one recording a rate greater than 2,000 positive infections per 100,000 people (the equivalent of one person in 50 in a fortnight becoming infected by Covid-19).

Westmeath (1,647) and Kildare (1,553.2) were the next worst affected while Mayo had the lowest rate in the country at 975 per 100,000.

The latest vaccination figures show that almost 94 per cent (93.8 per cent) of the adult population over the age of 18 is now vaccinated and a third have had booster shots. The figures are up to the end of last Monday.

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Separate figures on mortalities from Covid-19 showed that 19 people died from the disease during the second week of December, one higher than the previous week.

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), the HSE unit that collects data on Covid-19, said that the mean age of the latest weekly deaths was 67 and the median age was 64.

This is lower than the mean age of 71 and median age of 75 reported the previous week.

This brings the State’s death toll from the coronavirus disease during the pandemic to 5,835.

The 19 new deaths relate to mortalities occurring between December 8th and 15th and do not reflect the final number of deaths for the week as more may yet be reported for this period.

HPSC figures show there have been 57 deaths so far in December. There were 217 in November, 211 in October and 178 in September. January 2021 remains the worst month of the pandemic with 1,420 deaths.

Men account for 53 per cent of overall deaths and women 47 per cent. Some 85 per cent of people who died had an underlying condition, while 12 per cent had been admitted to intensive care.

The National Public Health Emergency Team said on Wednesday there had been 47 deaths newly notified in the past week but these include deaths occurring before December.

Ireland’s Covid-19 mortality rate, at about 120 deaths for every 100,000 people, is about half the rate of the United States and slightly below that of The Netherlands and Germany in Europe, according to the Covid-19 tracker data at Johns Hopkins University in the US.