Carlow and South Kilkenny are all showing a 14-day incidence rate of Covid-19 higher than the national average.
Latest local figures for the fortnight to Monday show that the mean nationwide was 587 per 100,000 population.
But a breakdown of the seven Local Electoral Areas shows that the rate for the Piltown Municipal District is more than double that on 1,232 after 263 new cases.
Carlow Town’s not too far behind on 1,020 (231 cases) with Tullow on 810 (151) and Bagenalstown on 704 (110).
Kilkenny City’s just hovering below on 577 (167) followed by Callan Thomastown on 493 (125) with Castlecomer boasting both the lowest rate of 450 and the least number of new positive tests at 106.
Across the two counties for the time-frame there were 1,153 detections of the virus – with Piltown and Carlow Town accounting for a fifth each of that figure.
And it seems there’s no sign of the figures falling any time soon – almost 15,000 instances of the virus have been reported over the past week – an increase of nearly 1,300 on the previous seven days.
It’s after 2,605 were confirmed yesterday, which is the highest in over nine months.
Cases among 5 to 12-year-old children have increased by about 50% in the past two weeks.
