THIRTY-THREE new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in Donegal this evening.
There have been 678 cases in Donegal in the last 14 days.
The county’s 14-day incidence rate, per 100,000 population, remains the highest in the country at 425.9. The national average is 209.6.
Nationally, four further Covid-19 related deaths and 744 new cases were announced this evening.
There have now been 2,204 Covid-19 related deaths and 86,129 cases since the outbreak.
While today’s figures are down on recent days, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has warned that this is due to a decrease in testing numbers.
He said: “We have seen a significant increase in the number of hospitalisations in the last two weeks from less than 190 to 324 today. This indicates a deteriorating disease trajectory nationally and is a significant reminder of the severity of this disease.
“There have been further increases across key indicators of Covid-19 right across the country and the growth rate of the epidemic has accelerated in recent days.
“Due to the lower volume of tests being carried out over Christmas Day and yesterday, we believe there are higher levels of disease circulating in the community than today’s reported case numbers reflect. We expect, therefore, to see a large increase in cases reported over the coming days.”
Of the cases notified today: 388 are men / 354 are women; 64 per cent are under 45 years of age; the median age is 34 years old.
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