HEALTH OFFICIALS HAVE today confirmed an additional 3,394 cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.

In a statement, the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) have also confirmed 4 more deaths from Covid-19.

This brings the death toll to 2,252, with a total of 96,926 cases of Covid-19 being reported in Ireland since the pandemic began.

Of the cases notified today:

• 1,619 are men / 1,766 are women
• 65% are under 45 years of age
• The median age is 35 years old
• 389 in Cork, 355 in Dublin, 339 in Donegal, 258 in Louth, 233 in Mayo and the remaining 1,820 cases are spread across all other counties. 

As of 2pm this afternoon, there are 607 Covid-19 patients in hospital, of which 56 are in ICU. There have been 71 hospitalisations in the last 24 hours.

The 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population now stands at 381.6.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said: “The incidence of COVID-19 is as high, if not higher now than it was in March. Every individual needs to act as if they are infectious. Hospitalisations are rising to levels close to what we saw in the springtime. Everyone needs to stay at home other than for essential work or care.

“It is really important that vulnerable and older people do not leave their homes unless absolutely essential. This includes asking neighbours or family to carry out errands such as grocery shopping, limiting all contacts to only those people you live with or have to visit for essential care reasons. 

“We need to rediscover the spirit of solidarity and community we saw in March and April so that we can all do our part in protecting older and vulnerable people.

“People particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 include older persons and people with pre-existing medical conditions including cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease and cancer.”

The Department of Health has also released a table to show both the positive tests and confirmed cases over the last 14 days.

Normally, the number of confirmed cases would correlate with the number of positive tests on the preceding day to allow for verification and the removal of duplicates.

Department of Health Department of Health

Until the delays that have arisen are resolved, laboratory test results will no longer be reported.

Speaking earlier today on RTÉ Radio One, chair of the Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, Professor Philip Nolan said that he expects the backlog issue to be resolved within the next week.

“At the pace at which those colleagues are succeeding in doing this, we’d expect that issue to be resolved within five to seven days.”

A spokesperson for the HSE has said that the delay was caused due to the high volumes of test data being uploaded to the Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting (CIDR) system.

“We have begun implementing a plan to resolve this issue and aim to have the CIDR system operating at a normal level of performance as soon as possible,” said the spokesperson.