WLRFM
News

Waterford's Covid incidence rate now double national average

Waterford's Covid incidence rate now double national average

Waterford’s Covid incidence rate is now twice as high as the national average.

The 14-day incidence per 100,000 people from Oct 5th up to midnight on Oct 18th is at 1,020. This means roughly 1 in every 100 people in the county has contracted Covid-19 in the two weeks.

1,185 confirmed cases of Covid were confirmed in Waterford in that period. 715 of those cases were recorded in the second week.

The average Covid incidence rate nationally is currently 493. Waterford has the highest incidence rate, followed by Longford at 871 and Carlow at 860.7.

Advertisement

There were 2,148 confirmed cases of the virus in Ireland yesterday and the seven-day average of new cases now stands at 1,889 - that's a rise of 66 per cent in the past fortnight.

In terms of hospitalisations, a member of NPHET says the number of Covid patients in intensive care could double in the next four weeks.

They're currently at their highest level in seven months, after the figure rose to 86 yesterday.

The number of Covid patients in hospital stands at 437 and 86 are in ICU - the highest in seven months.

Advertisement

Dr Mary Favier says cases have increased in 24 counties over the past week.

As of 8pm last night, 19 patients were on site at University Hospital Waterford, with three of those patients receiving intensive care.

Covid Testing

The HSE/South East Community Healthcare is reminding people to book an online appointment, as presentations on a “walk-in” (no appointment) basis are not available at its COVID-19 testing facilities.

Numbers coming to the test centre in Kilcohan in Waterford continue to be high.

Online self-referrals (and those from GPs) remain open for appointments at the centre on all seven days of the week.

Members of the public can make an appointment by self-referral, using the web portal for doing so at https://covid19test.healthservice.ie/hse-self-referral/

The HSE advises that if you have any symptoms that indicate that you may have COVID-19 (like cough, fever, headache, sore throat and blocked or runny nose), isolate and get a test immediately. For further information, see https://www2.hse.ie/conditions/covid19/testing/get-tested/

 

Advertisement