More than half of all Covid-19 cases recorded in Waterford during the four weeks up to the end of October were linked to outbreaks.
That's according to the latest Covid-19 Insight Bulletin released by the Central Statistics Office.
A total of 386 cases were recorded in Waterford from the 3rd of October until the 30th of October, of that number 197 (51%) were linked to outbreaks.
Nationally, there have been 29,664 positive COVID-19 cases linked to an outbreak, which is defined as two or more cases in the same location and time. Women account for 51% of all cases linked to an outbreak.
The median age of confirmed cases related to an outbreak is 32.
For the week ending 30 October, 42% of cases linked to an outbreak are under 25 years old.
Donegal, Galway and Mayo made up 45% of all cases linked to an outbreak for the week ending 30 October.
Outbreaks in private houses account for 49% of cases linked to an outbreak in the last four weeks, nursing homes account for 9% while childcare facilities and schools together account for 9% of cases linked to an outbreak in this period.
Confirmed Cases
The number of weekly confirmed COVID-19 cases is less than 5,000 cases for the first time in the last four weeks up to and including 30 October. The total number of confirmed cases is 62,415. The number of cases for the week ending 30 October is 3,881, a decrease of 2,546 from the previous week.
Dublin accounted for almost a third (1,202) of all new cases for the week ending 30 October and it was the seventh week in a row that Dublin had more than 1,000 weekly cases since the beginning of March. Cork is the county with the second-highest number of new cases at 570 cases, for the week ending 30 October.
Deaths
Fewer than 5 people in Waterford have died from Covid-19 since the outbreak began. Leitrim is the only other county in Ireland where fewer than 5 deaths have been recorded.
Carlow - 16 deaths
Kilkenny - 14 deaths
Tipperary - 23 deaths
Waterford - fewer than 5
Wexford - 29 deaths
The CSO (using Actual Date of Death) has found that the number of people who have died from COVID-19 has been greater than 10 for each of the last eight weeks, Dublin continues to be the worst hit.
The total number of people who have died from COVID-19 is 1,679, with a further 229 deaths cited as probable deaths linked to the virus. For the week ending 30 October, 30 deaths were recorded.
Underlying Conditions
There have been 1,568 deaths of people with underlying conditions from 15,570 confirmed cases with underlying conditions. The median age of those dying with underlying conditions is 83.
There were 1,450 deaths of people with underlying conditions in the over 65 age group. Of the 133 deaths in the 25-64 age group, 116 had underlying conditions.
In terms of underlying conditions, chronic heart disease was present in 44% of deaths.
Contacts
The average number of contacts per positive case per week is three in the week ending 30 October, down from six contacts per case six weeks ago. This implies details of more than 11,000 close contacts were recorded in the week. The number of contacts in the 15-24 age group has decreased to three contacts per case in the last week of October from just over six in early October.
Referrals and Testing
There were 75,837 referrals for community testing where a valid reservation was recorded in the week ending 30 October. Referrals for testing have decreased in the last week, in particular among the 0 – 14 age group, which has fallen from 18,629 to 10,935 in the week ending 30 October. Some 57% of referrals were from GPs in the week ending 30 October.
Testing numbers cannot be directly compared with referrals for community testing; there is a significant number of tests completed in hospitals as well as a time lag between referral and test completion. Several referrals also do not result in a test being completed. However, weekly testing numbers from HSE labs and hospitals show that there were 99,657 tests completed in the week ending 30 October. The positivity rate in the week ending 30 October was 5.3% down from 6.6% the previous week.
Information on the people who have died from COVID-19 or have been diagnosed with the virushttps://t.co/REQXVxaeIQ #CSOIreland #Ireland #COVIDIreland #Health pic.twitter.com/fj3fNtf17W
— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) November 6, 2020
This is the fifteenth publication in the series of information bulletins produced by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), that aim to provide insights into those who have either died from or contracted COVID-19, by using data from the Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting (CIDR) provided to the CSO by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre and data from the HSE’s Swiftcare (A2i) and COVID Care Tracker (CCT) systems.
