Key Findings:
This is the twenty-fourth 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 12 February 2021.
Deaths
For the week ending 12 February, 191 deaths were recorded among confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Throughout the pandemic, most deaths have occurred in the older age groups. In the week ending 12 February 2021, 91% of deaths were in people aged 65 years and over.
There were 51 deaths in Dublin in the week ending 12 February. Cork (31) was the only other county to record more than 20 deaths in the week.
0-64 years | 65-79 years | 80 years and over | |
04/12 | 4.76190476190476 | 26.1904761904762 | 69.0476190476191 |
11/12 | 9.09090909090909 | 12.1212121212121 | 78.7878787878788 |
18/12 | 18.75 | 34.375 | 46.875 |
25/12 | 18.6046511627907 | 34.8837209302326 | 46.5116279069767 |
01/01 | 6.89655172413793 | 36.2068965517241 | 56.8965517241379 |
08/01 | 8.47457627118644 | 28.8135593220339 | 62.7118644067797 |
15/01 | 6.71378091872792 | 32.1554770318021 | 61.13074204947 |
22/01 | 6.19946091644205 | 27.4932614555256 | 66.3072776280324 |
29/01 | 6.57534246575342 | 30.958904109589 | 62.4657534246575 |
05/02 | 5.48387096774194 | 31.2903225806452 | 63.2258064516129 |
12/02 | 9.42408376963351 | 24.0837696335079 | 66.4921465968586 |
Confirmed Cases
For the week ending 12 February, the number of weekly cases was 4,686, a decrease of 27% from the previous week.
Dublin accounted for more than a third (1,792) of all new cases for the week ending 12 February and it was the sixth week in a row that weekly cases in Dublin have fallen. Galway was the county with the second highest number of new cases (404) for the week ending 12 February.
This is the fifth week in a row that Leitrim has recorded less than 50 new cases. This is the third week in a row that Roscommon has recorded less than 50 new cases and the second such week for Longford.
Those aged 25-44 made up 31% of confirmed cases in the week ending 12 February with those aged 65 and over making up 11%.
There were 261 health care workers diagnosed in the week ending 12 February, this is the lowest weekly figure since the week ending 11 December. Figure 2 shows how the percentage of cases accounted for by health care workers has fallen from 21% of all confirmed cases in the week ending 22 January to 5.6% in the week ending 12 February.
Week Ending | Weekly Cases | % Health care workers |
---|---|---|
04/12 | 2348 | 13.6 |
11/12 | 2185 | 11.2 |
18/12 | 4527 | 9.8 |
25/12 | 12971 | 5.4 |
01/01 | 36020 | 6.8 |
08/01 | 29945 | 10.2 |
15/01 | 18815 | 16.0 |
22/01 | 10960 | 21.0 |
29/01 | 8006 | 18.4 |
05/02 | 6432 | 9.6 |
12/02 | 4686 | 5.6 |
Hospitalisations
Hospitalisations have been decreasing since the peak of 1,348 in the week ending 15 January and were 348 in the week ending 12 February. ICU admissions have also decreased from the peak of 126 in the week ending 08 January to 12 in the week ending 12 February. (Note: These figures may need to be adjusted if someone’s condition worsens as there is a time lag between onset of symptoms and hospitalisation.)
Contacts
The average number of contacts per positive case per week was two in the week ending 12 February, down from three contacts per case in early January. This implies details of more than 9,000 close contacts were recorded in the week.
0-14 years | 15-24 years | 25-44 years | 45-64 years | 80 years and over | All ages | |
04/12 | 2.67 | 3.56 | 3.63 | 2.94 | 2.77 | 3.12 |
11/12 | 2.68 | 4.16 | 3.62 | 3.22 | 2.96 | 3.44 |
18/12 | 2.76 | 4.9 | 4.48 | 4.07 | 2.01 | 4.08 |
25/12 | 2.53 | 5.22 | 4.17 | 4.2 | 2.04 | 4.6 |
01/01 | 1.93 | 3.42 | 3.34 | 2.93 | 1.97 | 3.02 |
08/01 | 2.22 | 3.73 | 3.55 | 2.97 | 2.18 | 3.24 |
15/01 | 1.7 | 2.59 | 2.64 | 2.45 | 1.62 | 2.41 |
22/01 | 1.71 | 2.5 | 2.56 | 2.53 | 1.44 | 2.38 |
29/01 | 1.66 | 2.54 | 2.71 | 2.55 | 1.61 | 2.45 |
05/02 | 1.47 | 2.77 | 2.81 | 2.58 | 1.86 | 2.49 |
12/02 | 1.65 | 2.57 | 2.56 | 2.51 | 1.68 | 2.36 |
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 7,259 cases have been linked to an outbreak and of these 2,120 (29%) were in nursing homes, 1,373 (19%) were in hospital or a community hospital/long-stay unit and 506 (7%) were in residential institutions. The over 80 age group made up 21% of all cases linked to an outbreak over this period.
There were 1,260 cases (17%) linked to an outbreak in the workplace in the last four weeks.
Referrals and Testing
There were 82,820 referrals for community testing where a valid reservation was recorded in the week ending 12 February. Referrals for testing decreased in the last week, in particular among the 45 – 64 age groups, which decreased from 28,955 to 25,243 in the week ending 12 February. Some 43% of referrals were from GPs in the week ending 12 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, healthcare / essential worker testing has dropped by 7,425 while contact testing / at risk groups has increased in the week ending 12 February.
Weekly testing numbers from HSE labs and hospitals show there were 117,123 tests completed in the week ending 12 February. The positivity rate in the week ending 12 February was 5.6%, down from 6.1% the previous week.
0 - 14 years | 15 - 24 years | 25 - 44 years | 45-64 years | 65-79 years | 80 years and over | |
04/12 | 9116 | 8021 | 24726 | 19437 | 2773 | 1412 |
11/12 | 9192 | 9599 | 23607 | 17976 | 2715 | 1340 |
18/12 | 12220 | 11448 | 31883 | 24357 | 3996 | 1920 |
25/12 | 14331 | 14389 | 36461 | 24351 | 5375 | 2833 |
01/01 | 16216 | 23762 | 50264 | 37504 | 9409 | 5447 |
08/01 | 9633 | 23007 | 58696 | 43157 | 9477 | 6767 |
15/01 | 7113 | 16645 | 53998 | 43037 | 8463 | 7361 |
22/01 | 6146 | 13245 | 48851 | 41612 | 7774 | 6388 |
29/01 | 4696 | 10732 | 39127 | 31949 | 6095 | 5655 |
05/02 | 5142 | 10358 | 34937 | 28955 | 5417 | 4375 |
12/02 | 5661 | 11222 | 32509 | 25243 | 4709 | 3476 |
Underlying Conditions
Due to the recent surge in cases there are a large volume of deaths and cases where underlying cases are unknown in recent weeks, therefore the current numbers of cases with underlying conditions are likely to be underestimated. This data is being reviewed by HPSC and for this reason, information on underlying conditions has not been included in this bulletin.
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 24 - Table 2-2A (XLS 33KB)
Table 3: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 24 - Table 3-3A (XLS 43KB)
Table 4: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 24 - Table 4-4A (XLS 44KB)
Table 6: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 24 - Table 6-6A (XLS 25KB)
Table 7: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 24 - Table 7-7A (XLS 56KB)
Table 9: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 24 - Table 9. (XLS 19KB)