Coronavirus: 591 New Cases; 3 Deaths Confirmed Today

National news updates on Thursday 5th November.

Latest Figures:

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 3 additional deaths related to COVID-19.

There has been a total of 1,933 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight Wednesday 4th November, the HPSC has been notified of 591 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 64,046* confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.

Of the cases notified today;

280 are men / 310 are women

59% are under 45 years of age

The median age is 38 years old

120 in Dublin, 75 in Donegal, 50 in Cork, 46 in Kerry, 44 in Limerick and the remaining 256 cases are spread across 20 other counties.

As of 2pm today 302 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 38 are in ICU. 20 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said; “A second surge is taking place across Europe. Ireland and Finland are the only European countries in the EU where reductions in 14 – day incidence have been observed. All other countries are increasing.

“Level 5 efforts over the last two weeks have succeeded in further reducing community transmission and disease incidence in Ireland, however, now is not the time to be complacent. We must keep driving down this disease- we must keep going.

The 19 to 24 year old age group has achieved a dramatic reduction in incidence, from 450 per 100,000 to 150 per 100,000 in two weeks. They have also halved their contacts in the past 5 weeks. We all need to recognise the efforts of our young people and I thank them.”

Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said “We estimate the reproduction number at 0.7 - 0.9. This is a testament to our collective effort to stop the spread of the virus and it is very good news. We may be doing better now but it is conditional on whether we keep it up. If we continue to use this time to drive the infection right down, we will be in a good position in four weeks time.”

Dr. Vida Hamilton, National Clinical Advisor and Group Lead, Acute Hospitals, HSE: “While the age demographic of cases vary from the first surge back in March to this one, ICU admissions have affected people from all age groups, with the average length of stay at 17.8 days. People of all ages are potentially vulnerable to the more extreme symptoms of this disease.

The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community.

*Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 28 confirmed cases. The figure of 64,046 confirmed cases reflects this.

Aviation:

It could take nine years for the aviation sector to recover from Covid 19.

That’s the warning from the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation in a worst case scenario situation.

It predicts aviation could recover by 2024 if a vaccine is rolled out next year in the best case scenario.

Director General Eamon Brennan says a lot depends on whether countries are ready to roll out any vaccine quickly@

Northern Ireland:

The North's executive will meet later where it's expected they'll discuss extending its Covid-19 lockdown.

Pubs and restaurants are due to reopen from November 13th, when the four week circuit breaker ends.

However there have been calls to extend it given the continued high number of cases.

Anne Speed, the lead negotiator for the North's health trade unions, says there's a worry that hospitals will become overrun:

England:

England enters its second Covid-19 lockdown today.

Everyone there has been ordered to stay at home for four weeks - except for education, work, food shopping or exercise. 

Gyms, entertainment venues and non-essential stores have to shut, while pubs and restaurants can only offer takeaways.

Chair of the UK Police Chiefs' Council, Martin Hewitt, says they won't tolerate people breaching the new restrictions:

Cross-border travel:

30 new Covid-19 outbreaks were identified at schools over the past week - while there are 125 open clusters in the settings.

Households is still the largest spreader of the disease according to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre with over 3,000 open clusters.

Monaghan GP Illona Duffy says the key to keeping the infection rates low is stopping non-essential travel across the border:

Reviewing Level 5:

NPHET is meeting this morning to review the progress that's been made to suppress the virus since new restrictions were brought in. 

Level 5 restrictions have been in place nationwide for two weeks. 

The day the country moved to Level 5 on the 21st of October, the national 14 day incidence rate was 291 per 100 thousand people. 

Two weeks on things have improved, our 14 day incidence rate has fallen to 212 per 100 thousand - having peaked at 309 during the two week period on the 28th of October.

The day level 5 took effect, 1,167 new cases were confirmed, alongside 3 additional deaths. Last night, 444 cases were announced, alongside 8 additional deaths. 

The hospitalisations haven't fallen significantly in the two week period, starting out at 314 on the 21st October. This morning 307 people are in hospital due to the virus. 

The Health Minister confirmed yesterday that the R number has fallen and is now estimated to be between 0.7 and 0.9