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COVID Deaths and Cases

From 28 February 2020 to 05 February 2021

CSO statistical release, , 11am

COVID-19 Insight Bulletins: Deaths and Cases, Series 23

Information on the people who have died due to COVID-19 or have been diagnosed with the virus.

Key Findings:

  • Some 274 people died due to COVID-19 in the week ending 05 February
  • In the week ending 05 February 2021, 94% of deaths were among people aged 65 years and over
  • The number of cases for the week ending 05 February was 5,562, a decrease of 2,066 cases from the previous week
  • In the week ending 05 February, Dublin accounted for 1,981 cases or 36% of all new cases
  • Hospitalisations have been decreasing since the week ending 15 January and were 456 in the week ending 05 February from a peak of 1,341 
  • ICU admissions have been decreasing since the week ending 08 January and were 12 in the week ending 05 February down from a peak of 124 
  • The average number of contacts per positive case per week was two in the week ending 05 February, down from three contacts in early January
  • In the last four weeks, there have been 4,198 cases linked to an outbreak in nursing homes, 952 linked to residential institutions and 1,178 linked to hospital or a community hospital/long-stay unit
  • There were 1,081 cases (12%) linked to an outbreak in the workplace in the last four weeks

This is the twenty-third 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 05 February 2021.

Deaths

For the week ending 05 February, 274 deaths were recorded, a decrease of 23% on the previous week.

Throughout the pandemic, most deaths have occurred in the older age groups. In the week ending 05 February 2021, 94% of deaths were in people aged 65 years and over.

There were 72 deaths in Dublin in the week ending 05 February. Cork (34) and Limerick (21) were the only other counties to record more than 20 deaths in the week.

 

0-64 years65-79 years80 years and over
04/124.7619047619047626.190476190476269.0476190476191
11/1210.3448275862069089.6551724137931
18/1218.7534.37546.875
25/1218.604651162790734.883720930232646.5116279069767
01/016.8965517241379336.206896551724156.8965517241379
08/018.9285714285714327.678571428571463.3928571428571
15/016.7857142857142931.785714285714361.4285714285714
22/016.1111111111111127.777777777777866.1111111111111
29/016.4788732394366230.985915492957762.5352112676056
05/026.204379562043831.02189781021962.7737226277372

Confirmed Cases

For the week ending 05 February, the number of weekly cases was 5,562, a decrease of 27% from the previous week.

Dublin accounted for more than a third (1,981) of all new cases for the week ending 05 February and it was the fifth week in a row that weekly cases in Dublin have fallen. Cork was the county with the second highest number of new cases (504) for the week ending 05 February. No other county had more than 500 weekly cases in the week ending 05 February.

This is the fourth week in a row that Leitrim has recorded less than 50 new cases. This is the second week in a row that Roscommon has recorded less than 50 new cases and the first such week for Longford.

There were 521 health care workers diagnosed in the week ending 05 February.

Those aged 65 or over made up 16% of confirmed cases in the week ending 05 February with those aged 25-44 making up 31%.

From Figure 2, the level of asymptomatic cases can be seen to have decreased to 10% in the week ending 01 January from more than 20% in early December following the change in the testing criteria (removal of close contact testing). As this change has now been reversed, the level has again risen above 20%.

Week EndingWeekly Cases% Not Symptomatic
04/12234822.1
11/12218521.6
18/12452719.2
25/121297126.0
01/013602010.4
08/012994511.3
15/011881514.6
22/011096017.9
29/01762816.9
05/02556223.7

Hospitalisations

Hospitalisations have been decreasing since the peak of 1,341 in the week ending 15 January and were 456 in the week ending 05 February. ICU admissions have also decreased from the peak of 124 in week ending 08 January to 12 in the week ending 05 February.

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.

Contacts

The average number of contacts per positive case per week was two in the week ending 05 February, down from three contacts per case in early January. This implies details of more than 11,000 close contacts were recorded in the week.

0-14 years15-24 years25-44 years45-64 years80 years and overAll ages
04/122.673.563.632.942.773.12
11/122.684.163.623.222.963.44
18/122.764.94.484.072.014.08
25/122.535.224.174.22.044.6
01/011.933.423.342.931.973.02
08/012.223.733.552.972.183.24
15/011.72.592.642.451.622.41
22/011.712.52.562.531.442.38
29/011.662.542.712.551.612.45
05/021.472.772.812.581.862.49

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 9,048 cases have been linked to an outbreak and of these 4,028 (45%) were in nursing homes, 1,311 (14%) were in hospital or a community hospital/long-stay unit and 798 (9%) were in residential institutions. The over 80 age group made up 23% of all cases linked to an outbreak over this period.

There were 1,081 cases (12%) 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 conditions are unknown in recent weeks therefore numbers of cases with underlying conditions in recent weeks are likely to be underestimated.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 2,787 deaths of people with underlying conditions from 29,418 confirmed cases with underlying conditions. The median age of those dying with underlying conditions is 83.

There were 2,585 deaths of people with underlying conditions in the over 65 age group. Of the 243 deaths in the 25-64 age group, 200 had underlying conditions.

In terms of underlying conditions, chronic heart disease was present in 41% of deaths.

Referrals and Testing

There were 89,238 referrals for community testing where a valid reservation was recorded in the week ending 05 February. Referrals for testing decreased in the last week, in particular among the 25 – 44 age groups, which decreased from 38,889 to 35,008 in the week ending 05 February. Some 43% of referrals were from GPs in the week ending 05 February, this is a decrease from 79% in 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 3,607 while contact testing / at risk groups has increased in the week ending 05 February.

Weekly testing numbers from HSE labs and hospitals show there were 129,467 tests completed in the week ending 05 February. The positivity rate in the week ending 05 February was 6.1%, down from 7.4% the previous week.

0 - 14 years15 - 24 years25 - 44 years45-64 years65-79 years80 years and over
04/1291168021247241943727731412
11/1291929595236061797527121340
18/121222011446318832435840071955
25/121433314391364672436453872888
01/011621323761502623750394035431
08/01963423005586934315594756766
15/01711316644539954303584517334
22/01614713250488854163277476308
29/01457010648388893188560395583
05/02509910381350082895454014395

For further COVID-19 related information go to the CSO COVID-19 Information Hub

Table 1 Profile of COVID-19 Deaths and Cases up to and including Friday February 05 2021

Table 2 & 2A Weekly Profile of COVID-19 Confirmed Deaths

Table 3 & 3A Weekly Profile of COVID-19 Confirmed Cases

Table 4 & 4A Weekly Electoral Division (ED) Analysis of Confirmed COVID-19 Cases

Table 5 Average Contacts per Positive COVID-19 case by Age Group

Table 6 & 6A Weekly Profile of New COVID-19 Cases who are Subsequently Hospitalised

Table 7 & 7A Weekly Profile of Confirmed Cases linked to COVID-19 Outbreaks

Table 8 Profile of COVID-19 patients with underlying conditions up to and including Friday February 05 2021

Table 9: Weekly Referrals for Community COVID-19 Tests, Tests Completed and Positivity Rate

Full statistical tables can be downloaded here:

Table 2: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 23 - Table 2-2A (XLS 34KB)

Table 3: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 23 - Table 3-3A (XLS 44KB)

Table 4: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 23 - Table 4-4A (XLS 44KB)

Table 6: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 23 - Table 6-6A (XLS 27KB)

Table 7: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 23 - Table 7-7A (XLS 58KB)

Table 9: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 23 - Table 9. (XLS 19KB)

 

Further Information

Contact
E-mail: Steven.Conroy@cso.ie