THE number of Covid-19 cases in Laois since the pandemic began has passed the 2,000 milestone, with 63 new cases today.
The increase brings the overall county figure to 2,004, up from 1,941 yesterday.
More significantly, over one-third of those cases were notified during the fortnight up to yesterday.
Laois had 772 new Covid infections during the 14 days up to midnight last night. That is 38.5% of all cases in the county since the pandemic outbreak last February.
The county’s 14-day virus incidence has reached 911.5 per 100,000 people, up from 843 yesterday.
However, this is still far lower than the average national rate, which has soared to 1,378.7 per 100,000.
Despite an ongoing surge in cases, Laois has the fourth lowest Covid rate in Ireland today, as many other counties experience an even higher increase in new infections.
Laois has dropped to 23rd out of the 26 counties in terms of virus incidence, down from 20th yesterday.
Nationally, eight additional deaths and 4,929 cases were announced today. The death toll has reached 2,352 and there have been 152,539 confirmed cases since the pandemic began.
As of 2pm today, 1,582 Covid patients are hospitalised, including 146 in ICU. There were 156 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
Portlaose hospital had 16 confirmed Covid patients last night, of whom three were critically ill in ICU.
Speaking today, chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said: “While we are seeing the first glimmer of hope in respect of our daily case figures and positivity rates, the situation in hospitals and ICUs around the country continues to worsen day on day.
“We know that hospitalisations occur some weeks after a confirmed case is notified, and mortality after that again. That means we are unfortunately set for a period of time where the situation in our hospitals gets worse before it gets better.”
Today’s cases, 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population and new cases in last 14 days (as of midnight 10 January 2021) (incidence rate based on Census 2016 county population)
| County | Today’s cases (to midnight 10Jan2021) | 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population (28Dec2020 to 10Jan2021) | New Cases during last 14 days (28Dec2020 to 10Jan2021) | ||||
| Ireland | 4,929 | 1378.7 | 65,650 | ||||
| Monaghan | 160 | 2687.9 | 1,650 | ||||
| Louth | 205 | 2319.9 | 2,990 | ||||
| Limerick | 320 | 2032.3 | 3,961 | ||||
| Waterford | 68 | 1667.3 | 1,937 | ||||
| Wexford | 305 | 1641.0 | 2,457 | ||||
| Dublin | 1,513 | 1568.0 | 21,127 | ||||
| Cavan | 37 | 1495.2 | 1,139 | ||||
| Donegal | 157 | 1493.8 | 2,378 | ||||
| Carlow | 78 | 1473.7 | 839 | ||||
| Cork | 695 | 1457.3 | 7,911 | ||||
| Clare | 114 | 1427.4 | 1,696 | ||||
| Mayo | 185 | 1303.4 | 1,701 | ||||
| Kilkenny | 39 | 1194.2 | 1,185 | ||||
| Meath | 124 | 1179.2 | 2,300 | ||||
| Sligo | 22 | 1147.5 | 752 | ||||
| Kerry | 66 | 1095.4 | 1,618 | ||||
| Kildare | 154 | 1029.2 | 2,290 | ||||
| Offaly | 33 | 933.8 | 728 | ||||
| Longford | 7 | 917.5 | 375 | ||||
| Laois | 63 | 911.5 | 772 | ||||
| Tipperary | 127 | 860.5 | 1,373 | ||||
| Roscommon | 72 | 821.1 | 530 | ||||
| Galway | 225 | 815.7 | 2,105 |
