Spike in number of COVID-19 clusters in midlands

There has been a significant rise in the number of COVID-19 clusters in the Midlands region.

Latest official figures show that there were 27 clusters or related cases of COVID-19 in the region.

Worryingly, 18 of these clusters relate to healthcare or long stay facilities.

Five were in nursing homes, two in hospitals, seven in community or long stay units and four in what is described as residential institutions.

The clusters were listed as of midnight on Tuesday, April 7. It’s a significant rise on 16 clusters which were reported in the midland region on Sunday, April 5.

And the official statistics from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre also shows that there are now two clusters associated with public houses in the midlands.

The second cluster related to a public house was first listed in last Sunday’s cases.

There is no further information available – nor is there an explanation as to why a cluster related to a midlands public house only emerged in official figures as late as last weekend.

It may be a case that a combination of the delays in both testing and delivery of test results along with the process of contact tracing resulted in the public house connection only being established in recent days.

Separately as of midnight Tuesday, there were 93 midland healthcare workers with the virus. Four cases were related to foreign travel.

Nationally, a whopping 27.4% of cases relate to healthcare workers.

As of midnight, Tuesday, there were 230 people who had been admitted to ICU. The youngest ICU admission was a patient in the 5-14 age group.

There were nine cases of COVID-19 in children under the age of 1.

Of the 257 deaths that had occurred by midnight, Tuesday, 231 were of people aged 65 or over. Two were in the 25-34 age group, four in the 35-44 age group, eight in the 45-54 age group and 12 in the 55-64 age group.

 

Westmeath continued to have a disproportionate level of cases, at 160 per 100,000 population, it had the third highest in the country, behind Dublin at 264 per 100,000 and Cavan at 173.3 per 100,000.

The Cavan figure relates in a large part to a major outbreak at Cavan hospital, where it is reported that some 70 medical staff have tested positive.

See story on our sister paper, The Anglo Celt HERE