Weddings, hen parties and communions have contributed to increased demand for Covid tests, according to the HSE.
About 100,000 tests were done over the past week – with a notable spike in the past five days.
There were 11% more tests on Saturday than the previous Saturday.
The HSE’s head of testing and tracing, Niamh O’Beirne, says there’s no obvious reason for the spike:
“Generally speaking, increased social mixing, different events between parties and communions. We’ve heard some of those events have large numbers of close contacts, weddings, hen parties and communions in particular”
She says the only age groups where numbers are not growing are the 15-24 and 25-34 groups. “All other age groups we are seeing an increase in the number of positive cases, and the number of tests”
Meanwhile Carlow still has one of the highest incidences of the virus in the country behind Waterford and Longford.
The most recent figures published for last week shows a 7 day incidence rate per 100 thousand of 332 compared to 135 in Kilkenny which is still one of the lowest.
