By James Cox and Aoife Kearns
A further four Covid-19 related deaths have been confirmed by the Department of Health along with 429 additional cases.
Seven of the cases reported this evening are in Waterford and the 14-day incidence rate of the virus in the county has dropped to 154.9.
Waterford now has the fifth-highest incidence rate in the country, with Roscommon replacing Waterford as the county with the fourth-highest.
There has been a total of 2,010 Covid-19 related deaths in the Republic of Ireland along with 69,473 confirmed cases.
Meanwhile, a leader within the Government’s three-party coalition has argued for the reopening of various sectors of the country, following the current lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Of the cases notified today:
- 194 are men / 234 are women
- 69 per cent are under 45 years of age
- The median age is 34 years old
- 173 are in Dublin, 44 in Cork, 26 in Donegal, 22 in Louth, 21 in Kildare and the remaining 143 cases are spread across the remaining 20 counties.
In our objective to use a six-week period to drive down Covid-19 infection in the community, our progress has stalled in the last week
As of 2pm today, 290 Covid-19 patients are being treated in hospital, of which 33 are in ICU. 15 additional Covid-19 cases have been reported in Irish hospitals in the past 24 hours.
Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said: “In our objective to use a six-week period to drive down Covid-19 infection in the community, our progress has stalled in the last week.
“We now have two weeks to get back on track. Drive down the disease by limiting the number of daily contacts you have. Work from home, stay at home and follow public health advice to get us to a reproduction number below 0.5 by December 1st."
Deputy chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said: “Deaths associated with Covid-19 have increased by 18 per cent in the European region over the past fortnight. Last week alone, Europe registered over 29,000 new deaths.
"That is one person dying every 17 seconds. We have made significant progress in Ireland over recent weeks, but the disease and its risks have not changed. Please continue in your efforts to follow public health advice, limit the transmission of Covid-19 in Ireland and protect those who are most vulnerable in our families and across our communities.”
