The majority of data used in this report is taken from the Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting (CIDR) provided to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre and are provisional and subject to ongoing review, validation and update. As a result, figures in this report may differ from previously published figures. Due to the recent surge in case numbers, there is a delay in linking of cases to outbreaks on the national surveillance system (CIDR). Therefore, the number of linked cases to outbreaks in this report is likely to be an underestimate. However Public Health are prioritising the reporting of outbreaks in key settings e.g. residential care facilities, hospitals etc.
Key Findings:
This is the twenty-second publication in our series of information bulletins produced by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) that aim to provide insights into those who have either died from or contracted COVID-19, by using data from the Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting (CIDR) provided to the CSO by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre and data from the HSE’s Swiftcare (A2i) and COVID Care Tracker (CCT) systems. This Bulletin covers the period from 28 February 2020 to 29 January 2021.
Confirmed Cases
For the week ending 29 January, the number of weekly cases was 6,275, a decrease of 4,771 from the previous week. The total number of confirmed cases to date is 196,780.
This is the third week in a row where the median age of new cases has been over 40. The median age of new confirmed COVID-19 cases was 41 years old for the week ending 29 January.
Dublin accounted for almost a third (2,030) of all new cases for the week ending 29 January and it was the fourth week in a row that weekly cases in Dublin have fallen. Cork was the county with the second highest number of new cases (635) for the week ending 29 January. No other county had more than 500 weekly cases in the week ending 29 January.
This is the fourth week in a row that Leitrim has recorded less than 100 new cases.
This is the third week in a row that Longford has recorded less than 100 new cases and the second such week for Roscommon.
Since the start of the pandemic, some 10,601 more females were diagnosed with COVID-19 than males.
There were 963 health care workers diagnosed in the week ending 29 January.
The 25-44 age group continues to show the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases at 66,927, however over the last the five weeks the percentage of weekly cases in the over 80 age group has increased from 2.5% of cases to over 9.4% in week ending 29 January, see Figure 1.
| Week Ending | Weekly Cases | % 80 and over |
|---|---|---|
| 04/12 | 1842 | 4.73 |
| 11/12 | 2348 | 4.26 |
| 18/12 | 4527 | 3.78 |
| 25/12 | 12971 | 3.90 |
| 01/01 | 36020 | 2.54 |
| 08/01 | 29945 | 3.76 |
| 15/01 | 18814 | 7.19 |
| 22/01 | 11044 | 8.03 |
| 29/01 | 6275 | 9.39 |
Hospitalisations
Table 6 shows weekly hospitalisations and admission to Intensive Care Units (ICU). These are dated using the epidemiological date of infection and so can be compared with confirmed cases. Hospitalisations have been decreasing since the week ending 15 January and were 539 in the week ending 29 January. It is important to note that there is a time lag between onset of symptoms and hospital admissions and trends in confirmed cases in hospitals suggest that the numbers reported for recent weeks will be revised upwards and thus are marked as provisional.
From Figure 2 and Table A, it can be seen that the hospitalisation rate was 54 and the ICU rate 4 per 1,000 confirmed cases in January. (Note: It is important to note that there is a time lag between onset of symptoms and hospital admission. Also note that January rates are provisional and expected to increase).
| Mortality Rate | Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Rate | Hospitalisation Rate | |
| March | 45.0167730765069 | 24.889081268261 | 156.151931609133 |
| April | 76.5980752679759 | 13.1445113840858 | 114.857992332368 |
| May | 42.1317969031329 | 10.4429240187252 | 109.830752610731 |
| June | 40.1002506265664 | 8 | 102.756892230576 |
| July | 22 | 6 | 39.136302294197 |
| August | 3.72786579683131 | 3.72786579683131 | 24.5417831624728 |
| September | 6.09343263371699 | 4.51365380275333 | 35.206499661476 |
| October | 6.78480204342273 | 3.63186462324393 | 34.6424010217114 |
| November | 15.8920539730135 | 5.79710144927536 | 72.063968015992 |
| December | 6.81329923273657 | 3.25319693094629 | 32.0204603580563 |
| January | 12.7374272241102 | 3.68818988909086 | 53.8739165942201 |
Deaths
The results produced by the CSO in Table 2 are based on the Actual Date of Death. Using this method, the CSO has found that the number of people who have died due to COVID-19 has been greater than 250 for each of the last three weeks.
Since the start of the pandemic, the total number of people who have died due to COVID-19 in Ireland is 3,054, with a further 160 deaths cited as probable deaths linked to the virus. For the week ending 29 January, 317 deaths were recorded.
The virus claimed the lives of 28 more men than women up to and including the week ending 29 January. It also continues to impact the older age groups the hardest, with 64% of all confirmed COVID-19 deaths to date in the 80 years old or older age group.
There were 109 deaths in Dublin in the week ending 29 January, while Cork (36) and Limerick (28) were the only other counties to record more than 20 deaths in the week.
From Table A we can see the overall mortality rate is 16 per 1,000 confirmed cases, this was highest in April at 77 per 1,000 confirmed cases. The mortality rate was 13 per 1,000 cases in January. (Note: These figures may need to be revised as there is a time lag between onset of symptoms and death.)
Referrals and Testing
There were 98,396 referrals for community testing where a valid reservation was recorded in the week ending 29 January. Referrals for testing decreased in the last week, in particular among the 25 – 44 age groups, which decreased from 48,859 to 39,297 in the week ending 29 January. Some 41% of referrals were from GPs in the week ending 29 January, this is a decrease from 79% in the week ending 01 January. Analysis on referral speciality type shows that while residential settings/ institutions/ schools’ referrals for testing have remained consistent for the last number of weeks, general COVID-19 testing has dropped by 14,874 while healthcare/ essential worker testing has increased in the week ending 29 January.
Testing numbers cannot be directly compared with referrals for community testing; there is a significant number of tests completed in hospitals as well as a time lag between referral and test completion. Several referrals also do not result in a test being completed. However, weekly testing numbers from HSE labs and hospitals show there were 138,741 tests completed in the week ending 29 January. The positivity rate in the week ending 29 January was 7.4%, down from 10.8% the previous week.
Contacts
The average number of contacts per positive case per week was two in the week ending 29 January, down from three contacts per case in early January. This implies details of more than 12,000 close contacts were recorded in the week.
Outbreaks
Public Health report outbreaks to HPSC and link cases to these outbreaks. This process is taking longer with the recent surge in case numbers. Public Health are prioritising the reporting of outbreaks in key settings e.g. RCFs, hospitals. Therefore, the number of private house outbreaks is underestimated.
From Table 7 it can be seen that in the last four weeks 8,730 cases have been linked to an outbreak and of these 4,198 (48%) were in nursing homes, 952 (11%) were in residential institutions and 1,178 (13%) were in hospital or a community hospital/long-stay unit. The over 80 age group made up 24% of all cases linked to an outbreak over this period.
There were 804 cases (9%) linked to an outbreak in the workplace in the last four weeks.
Underlying Conditions
Due to the recent surge in cases there are a large volume of deaths and cases where underlying cases are unknown, which means the numbers of cases with underlying conditions in recent weeks are likely to be underestimated.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 2,504 deaths of people with underlying conditions from 28,326 confirmed cases with underlying conditions. The median age of those dying with underlying conditions is 83.
There were 2,320 deaths of people with underlying conditions in the over 65 age group. Of the 222 deaths in the 25-64 age group, 183 had underlying conditions.
In terms of underlying conditions, chronic heart disease was present in 42% of deaths.
For further COVID-19 related information go to the CSO COVID-19 Information Hub
Full statistical tables can be downloaded here:
Table 2: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 22 - Table 2-2A (XLS 34KB)
Table 3: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 22 - Table 3-3A (XLS 41KB)
Table 4: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 22 - Table 4-4A (XLS 43KB)
Table 6: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 22 - Table 6-6A (XLS 27KB)
Table 7: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 22 - Table 7-7A (XLS 57KB)
Table 9: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 22 - Table 9 (XLS 19KB)