There has now been a total of 1,838 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland.
There is now a total of 46,429 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland.
Of the cases notified today:
- 614 are men/590 are women
- 71 per cent are under 45 years of age
- The median age is 34 years old
- 288 in Dublin, 173 Cork, 123 in Meath, 97 in Galway 63 in Cavan and the remaining 461 cases are spread across all remaining counties
Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said: “There has been further increases across all key indicators of Covid-19 and the growth rate of the epidemic has accelerated since Nphet last met.
“Cases notified over the past week have increased by 82 per cent compared with the previous seven days, from 3,514 to 6,382 cases.
“The positivity rate over the past seven days is now 6.2 per cent and is continuing to increase.
“The 14-day incidence in those aged 65 years and older has increased from 92.9 per 100,000 population on October 7th, to 125 per 100,000 population on the 14th of October.
“The number of hospitalisations are increasing faster than the exponential growth modelling predicted. This indicates a rapidly deteriorating disease trajectory nationally.”
Deputy chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said: “There is now a deteriorating epidemiological landscape across the EU. Many EU countries are experiencing increasing hospitalisations, ICU admissions and deaths related to Covid-19.
“Our priorities remain focused on protecting the medically and socially vulnerable, protecting childcare and education settings and preventing unnecessary disruption to non-Covid health and social care services.”
Meanwhile, HSE chief executive Paul Reid has said that while hospitals are coping at the minute, many are "extremely anxious of what lies ahead" as the number of patients being treated for Covid-19 in Irish hospitals continues to rise.
Mr Reid told the HSE's weekly press briefing today that 25 per cent of hospitalisations were in people under 35 years of age, 27 per cent were people between 35 and 64, while the largest category was those aged over 65, accounting for 47 per cent of admissions. In ICUs, nine patients admitted were between 34 and 64, while 13 were over 65.
There have been 763 new Covid-19 cases in Northern Ireland in the last 24-hour reporting period, the region’s Department of Health has announced.
There were four deaths reported on Thursday, taking the toll recorded by the Department of Health to 606.
6,394 new positive cases have been notified in the last seven days, with an average of 913 cases reported a day.
