“Please continue to reduce your social contacts so that the virus does not get the opportunity to spread further.”
That’s the plea from the Acting Chief Medical Officer after the latest figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre show the highest daily rise since May.
As of midnight Monday, 31 August, there was a further 217 confirmations across the country. The majority of these, 103, were in Dublin with 25 in Kildare, 17 each in Limerick and Tipperary, seven more in both Waterford & Wicklow, six in Clare and five in Louth. The remaining 30 are divided in pockets of five or less in 12 counties of Carlow and Kilkenny as well as Wexford, Cavan, Cork, Donegal, Galway, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon and Westmeath.
Of these, 113 are women & the rest are men with 70% aged 45 and under. Half are associated with outbreaks or are close contacts of a confirmed case with community transmission linked to 19 others.
There have been no new deaths reported so the toll is still 1,777 while there is now a total of 29,025 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland after the denotification of three instances.
Though highlighting the increase Dr. Ronan Glynn added “The five day moving average remains relatively stable at 115 cases per day. However, this is still a substantial number of cases and I urge everyone to double down on their efforts now – wash hands regularly, physically distance from others, wear face coverings where appropriate, avoid crowded areas, know the symptoms, isolate and contact your GP if you have any concerns”.
It comes after concern was raised that Carlow was one of five counties to record a significant rise in cases over the past fortnight (read about that here). As of midnight Sunday, August 30, the total number of people in the county who’d tested positive was 246 while in Kilkenny the figure is 400.
