The high transmission of Covid-19 in counties such as Donegal cannot be put down to one single reason, according to Deputy Chief Medical Officer Ronan Glynn.
NPHET faced questions from media on Monday over the consistently high Covid figures in counties including Donegal, Kilkenny and Limerick. In recent weeks, Donegal has recorded some of Ireland’s highest daily case increases after Dublin.
The reason, Dr Glynn said, is not clear-cut.
“There isn’t any one factor,” he said, affecting counties that have higher case numbers than others in Ireland.
“When there is one factor, conversely, it makes it easier to control because you have only one set of measures to take.”
Different counties have different challenges, Dr Glynn added.
“We’re still seeing outbreaks in workplaces across a range of different settings.
“We’ve been clear that there have been a number of outbreaks in acute hospitals at the moment, and obviously, other healthcare settings have been challenged over recent weeks.”
Letterkenny University Hospital continues to deal with an ongoing outbreak of Covid-19. The hospital underwent Ireland’s largest universal screening programme this month.
Dr Glynn commented that individuals are the key to curbing the spread in every county.
He said: “The one factor that is common to all counties is people’s individual behaviour and regardless of whether you live in Limerick or Donegal, Kilkenny or any of the other counties, or regardless of what NPHET recommends on Thursday, the reality is people need to do individual risk assessments over the days to come and need to make sure they are keeping themselves and their families as safe as possible as we head into the Christmas period.”