There have been 15 additional deaths related to COVID-19 reported by the Department of Health today, along with 310 new cases.
Of the cases notified today, 13 are in Galway, where the 14-day incidence rate of the virus is 60.1 cases per 100,000 population. There have been 155 new cases reported in Galway in the past two weeks.
There have now been more than 75,000 confirmed cases in the state, and Ireland has seen 2,117 COVID related deaths.
Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 7 confirmed cases.
Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer said “Tomorrow marks 14 days to Christmas Day. To ensure the safest possible interaction with your family over Christmas, consider restricting your movements now.”
“Risk assess the environments you plan to be in over the next two weeks; are they compliant with public health measures? Can you keep a two metre distance? Are people wearing face coverings?”
“Now is the time to make decisions about what interactions are necessary and pose the lowest risk to you, your family and friends over Christmas.”
As of 2pm today there are 202 people in Ireland hospitalised with COVID-19, of whom 36 are in the ICU. There have been 15 people hospitalised in the past 24 hours.
The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community.
Of the cases notified today:
- 162 are men and 148 are women
- 61% are under 45 years of age
- the median age is 39 years old
- 80 in Dublin, 27 in Donegal, 25 in Louth, 15 in Kilkenny, 15 in Waterford, 15 in Tipperary, 15 in Meath and the remaining 118 cases are spread across 16 other counties
Dr. Ronan Glynn said that the prospect of a vaccine being rolled out next year should not distract people from what they need to do in order to stay safe this month.
“A vaccine will have no positive impact on the trajectory of this disease over the coming weeks and does not give immunity to people over the Christmas period.”
“We must not allow COVID-19 to spread through our communities now, after all the efforts we have made throughout 2020 and how close we are to beginning to vaccinate.”
