Ireland with shocking COVID-19 figures: registered highest number of COVID-19 infections in the world over past week

DUBLIN: The growth rate of the COVID-19 infection in Ireland is rising, shocking the whole world. It is alarming that Ireland has had the highest number of COVID-19 infections in the world in the last seven days.

Bloomberg’s latest data confirms that 10,100 COVID-19 cases per million people were recorded in Ireland in the past week. With the confirmation of 4,929 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday, the figures have made Ireland the most affected country in the world in the last seven days.

The department of health confirmed eight further deaths due to COVID-19. This brings the death toll from COVID-19 in Ireland to 2,352 and brings the total number of confirmed cases to 152,539.

Of the cases registered yesterday, 2,250 were men and 2,641 were women. 59% were under the age of 45 years, while the median age is 39 years. 1,513 cases were reported in Dublin, 695 in Cork, 320 in Limerick, 305 in Wexford, 225 in Galway and the remaining 1,871 cases are spread across all other counties. A total of 1,582 COVID-19 patients were hospitalised, of which 146 were in ICU.

Tests by the National Virus Reference Lab have shown that UK variants are on the rise in Ireland. The latest sample of 92 positive tests shows that 45% of the positive cases are of the UK variant.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the government accepted their responsibility as cases increased rapidly after easing the COVID-19 restrictions. However, he pointed out that increased socialisation and the presence of the UK variant would be the real reason for the spread of COVID-19.

“It’s not as simple as that. We had been in a very prolonged period of restrictions of one kind or the other and coming into December period we had six weeks of Level 5. The socialisation that emerged in December alongside the new variants, and as Prof Paul Moynagh pointed out, don’t underestimate the seasonality of this virus,” Taoiseach said.

Mr. Martin said not only did restaurants and gastropubs open, but households also created a “perfect environment for the virus to spread.”

He said the government had acted swiftly since it became aware of the seriousness of the virus outbreak. “We didn’t have a New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day or the socialisation on Christmas Eve because we moved to go back to Level 5 during Christmas week”.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said: “The cases are falling, this hasn’t been reflected in the case numbers in recent days, but it will start to show. The problem is that they are falling from such a high level, and hospital numbers and ICU numbers are still very high”.

Mr. Varadkar said Ireland is ahead of schedule in terms of vaccination and plans to include all nursing home staff, health workers, the elderly and those with underlying conditions vaccinated by Easter. He added that it has the potential to reduce death rate by up to 98% and reduce hospital admissions.