Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
latest figures
One week into Level 5, what does this week's Covid-19 data tell us?
Public Health officials have cautioned that it is too early to say if any trend has emerged.
6.05pm, 29 Oct 2020
86.0k
76
LAST UPDATE|30 Oct 2020
LEVEL 5 HAS been in place across Ireland for one week.
Public Health officials will be closely monitoring Covid-19′s spread over the coming weeks as restrictions on movement will – it is hoped – limit the spread of the virus and reduce community transmission.
Health officials this evening confirmed 866 further cases of Covid-19 and six deaths.
A total of 675 new cases were confirmed on Wednesday and 720 new cases were confirmed on Tuesday.
That is a total of 2,261 compared to 3,502 cases over the same period last week.
Ireland’s reproductive number last week was estimated at between 1.3 and 1.4 and early indications show it has fallen again.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has said a reproductive number of 0.5 would be a sufficient level of transmission to move out of strict restrictions.
The figures are looking positive. However, Public Health officials have cautioned that it is too early to say if any trend has set in.
Ireland’s national incidence rate is 292.1 cases per 100,000 of the population on a 14-day rolling average, according to data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre – compared to 302.49 on this day last week.
HPSC
HPSC
The incidence rate in individual counties has spiked in recent weeks but has mostly reduced over the last 7 days.
Cavan’s incidence rate is now estimated at 753.5 cases per 100,000, according to the Department of Health.
It was 1055.5 cases per 100,000 – the highest any county has reached so far – last week.
Meath remains the second-highest in Ireland with a 14-day incidence rate of 561.9 cases per 100,000 – compared to 659.9 cases last Thursday.
The next highest is Westmeath which 404.4 cases per 100,000 – compared to 417.9 cases last week.
Counties with lowest incidence rate include Tipperary (145.5), Wicklow (148.1) and Kilkenny (170.3)
By comparison to Europe, Ireland’s 14-day incidence rate is lower than France (680.6), Spain (486.7), the United Kingdom (431.6) and Italy (359.5), according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
ECDC
ECDC
The above countries, including Ireland, are still considerably lower than both Belgium, which has a 14-day incidence rate of 1498.7 and Czechia, which has a 14-day incidence rate of 1481.0 per 100,000.
For more on how European countries are dealing with a second wave of Covid-19, see here.
Testing & Tracing
After a rocky week for the HSE – which was forced to stall its Contact Tracing operation for 2,000 positive cases last week – referrals for testing have decreased.
Advertisement
Speaking at the Oireachtas Committee on Health yesterday, National Lead for Testing and Tracing Niamh O’Beirne said last week’s decision was taken to ensure that each person was informed “as quickly as possible” and to allow them to be “aware of their status and to take action to care for themselves, and protect others from infection”.
“While this was clearly not ideal and we appreciate the impact on those affected, it was deemed to be the only viable option in order to deal with the most recent cases quickly and reset the system,” she said.
“We apologise to the 1,971 people impacted and are this week going to call everyone we missed to check they were able to identify contacts and advise them to be tested,” said O’Beirne.
This week’s figures, meanwhile, show a reduction in the number of tests being carried out.
Approximately 116,000 tests were carried out over the 7 days up to last Thursday. The positivity rate then was 6.9% - an increase of 0.4% since the previous week.
Approximately 103,000 tests have been carried out in the last 7 days. The positivity rate is now estimated at 5.4% – a decrease from 6.9% last week.
It is worth noting that only 11,435 tests were carried out on Monday – a Bank Holiday – compared to the previous six days when an average of 16,700 test were carried out per day, thus skewing the figures slightly.
The HSE also confirmed to TheJournal.ie that referrals for testing were down 15% on Tuesday compared with the previous week.
Hospital & ICU capacity
There have been been 26 hospital admissions in the last 24 hours and 36 discharges.
There are – as of this morning – 327 confirmed Covid-19 cases in hospitals – and 43 people in Intensive Care Units as of 8am this morning.
Last Thursday, there were 311 hospitalised cases of Covid-19 and 37 people in ICU.
Department of Health
Department of Health
Outbreaks & Clusters
HPSC
HPSC
There has been a further rise in the number of outbreaks in schools since the HPSC was released last week.
Outside of private homes, there are now more clusters in schools than in any other setting with a further 46 new outbreaks in the week up to last Friday.
The HPSC notes, however: “These outbreaks are outbreaks associated with school children +/or school staff. Transmission of Covid-19 within the school has not necessarily been established in these outbreaks.”
The total number of outbreaks since the start of the pandemic is 6,228. Of these, 3,545 remain “open” according to the HPSC’s recent data.
For an outbreak to be considered “closed”, there must be 28 days from the last case diagnosed or becoming symptomatic.
There were 521 new outbreaks in private homes confirmed up to last Friday – an increase of 60 from the previous week bringing to 4,498 the total number of outbreaks in this setting since the pandemic reached Ireland.
Of these, 2,816 remain open.
Finally, there have been 15 new outbreaks in nursing homes – 51 outbreaks in nursing homes remain “open”.
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
Man deported from Ireland on Nigeria flight earlier this year wins appeal to return
Eoghan Dalton
6 hrs ago
32.3k
InvestigatesSeal harm
Snap happy tourists harming seals by picking up pups for selfies and flying drones
Patricia Devlin
1 hr ago
593
3
Animal Welfare
'Awful to watch': Outrage over video of horse and trap crashing into car on Dublin road
17 hrs ago
35.6k
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 220 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage . Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework. The choices you make regarding the purposes and vendors listed in this notice are saved and stored locally on your device for a maximum duration of 1 year.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Social Media Cookies
These cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 154 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 201 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 163 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 124 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 125 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 52 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 49 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 181 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 79 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 113 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 119 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 52 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 67 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 38 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 126 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 128 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 96 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 69 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 120 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 108 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say