A further 1,545 confirmed cases of Covid-19 have been reported in the State by the Department of Health.
The department also said that 335 coronavirus patients are hospitalised, of which 56 are in intensive care.
Additionally, the department reported that the total number of deaths related to the virus in the State since the pandemic began now stands at 5,155. There were 43 new deaths registered in the last seven days.
| Total doses distributed to Ireland | Total doses administered in Ireland |
|---|---|
| 9,452,860 | 7,856,558 |
This does not guarantee that all of these deaths occurred in the last week as the death registration system in Ireland allows families more time to register the passing of a relative.
“Overall the incidence of Covid-19 infection is declining across the country, the five day moving average is 1,407 and we see a stabilisation of ICU and hospital admissions,” chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said in a statement.
“Incidence of Covid-19 in adolescents and young adults is falling significantly and we are seeing early encouraging signs that the rate of infection plateauing in children of school going age. Nphet will continue to monitor this trend over the coming weeks.”
“Vaccination continues to offer the best protection against the most severe effects of Covid-19 including hospitalisation and death.”
In Northern Ireland, a further six people with Covid-19 have died, the North’s Department of Health reported on Wednesday. A total of 1,210 new cases of the virus were confirmed.
In the North’s hospitals 454 people with Covid-19 are receiving treatment, with 44 in intensive care.
Test centres
Also on Wednesday, it was reported that Monaghan and Donegal, the two counties with the highest Covid-19 incidence, have the lowest rates of vaccination against the disease.
Meanwhile, the Health Service Executive has suspended walk-ins to Covid-19 test centres because of a spike in demand during the last 48 hours.
The HSE set up walk-in test centres during the summer to help curb spread of the disease. But there has been a 35 per cent increase in demand in the last 48 hours.
There were reports online of three-hour queues for the walk-in centre in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, which has one of the highest prevalences of coronavirus in the State.
A HSE spokesman said the public are being asked to book an appointment online from now on “to avoid uneven usage with frequent variance between queues and quiet times”.
Over the weekend 9,500 people availed of the walk-in vaccination centres, half of whom were in the 12 to 15 age group.
New figures from the European Centre for Disease Control show Ireland now has the highest rate of coronavirus in the EU/EEA area with a 14-day incidence rate of 504.11 cases per 100,000 for the fortnight up to September 7th.
At the same time deaths in Ireland are among the lowest in the EU/EEA, at 6.65 per 100,000 – just over half the average across Europe of 12.68 per 100,000.
The Border counties of Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan have by far the highest rates of the disease in the Republic, according to the latest figures.
Statistics from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre show Monaghan has a 14-day incidence rate of 1,269 per 100,000 followed by Donegal with 1,039.6 per 100,000 and Cavan at 825 per 100,000.
The highest rates remain clustered in the northern half of the State with Longford at 658.1 per 100,000, Leitrim (705.3 per 100,000) and Roscommon (615.6 per 100,000) fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.
By contrast Waterford, which has a near universal rate of vaccine uptake, has the lowest prevalence countrywide at 263.4 per 100,000.
There were 21,464 cases in the fortnight between August 23rd and September 5th which corresponded with the return to school.
Cases were overwhelmingly clustered in younger age cohorts. There were 2,963 cases among schoolchildren between the ages of five and 12, 2,701 in those aged between 13 and 18 and 2,814 in those between 19 and 24.
Eleven children under the age of four, 10 between five and 12, 12 between 13 and 18 and 20 between 19 and 24 were admitted to hospital in the same period. There were 329 people hospitalised and 19 admitted to intensive care in total.
The percentage of the total population that has at least one dose surpassed 75 per cent on Tuesday with 70 per cent fully vaccinated.
