The date used for reporting on weekly cases in this bulletin is the ‘Epidemiological date’, in line with Health Protection Surveillance Centre daily reports. This date more accurately reflects the date symptoms are first experienced by the patient.
Figure 1 shows how as the incidence of COVID-19 increased over the Christmas period, the reported cases (blue line) fell behind the positive tests processed (green line) and a backlog of cases was created. While it has no implications for subsequent health outcomes, from Jan 1 the testing regime was changed and close contacts were not referred for testing unless symptomatic, this change could be expected to impact positive test numbers from Jan 3.
In an effort to deal with the increase in cases and clear this backlog the information collected by HPSC in the CIDR system was temporarily curtailed including a suspension of the Positive Patient Assessment extract from the COVID Care Tracker (CCT, the HSE’s Case Management System for COVID 19). As a result, the Epidemiological date from the CIDR system began to track the date positive tests were processed and not onset of symptoms.
| Reported Date | Positive tests | CCT Epidemiological date | |
| 14/12 | 264 | 356 | 703 |
| 15/12 | 329 | 474 | 744 |
| 16/12 | 431 | 521 | 792 |
| 17/12 | 484 | 637 | 793 |
| 18/12 | 582 | 703 | 958 |
| 19/12 | 527 | 746 | 954 |
| 20/12 | 764 | 757 | 1003 |
| 21/12 | 727 | 698 | 1421 |
| 22/12 | 970 | 1077 | 1652 |
| 23/12 | 938 | 1269 | 1936 |
| 24/12 | 922 | 1644 | 2327 |
| 25/12 | 1025 | 1207 | 2598 |
| 26/12 | 1296 | 343 | 3701 |
| 27/12 | 744 | 1178 | 4890 |
| 28/12 | 765 | 2007 | 5508 |
| 29/12 | 1546 | 2867 | 5206 |
| 30/12 | 1718 | 4372 | 5142 |
| 31/12 | 1620 | 5621 | 5224 |
| 01/01 | 1754 | 4554 | 5397 |
| 02/01 | 3394 | 6486 | 5258 |
| 03/01 | 4962 | 5199 | 5162 |
| 04/01 | 6110 | 4427 | 5111 |
| 05/01 | 5325 | 6862 | 4047 |
| 06/01 | 7836 | 6368 | 3360 |
| 07/01 | 6521 | 5155 | 2903 |
| 08/01 | 8248 | 5005 | 2767 |
| 09/01 | 4842 | 4142 | |
| 10/01 | 6888 | 2845 | |
| 11/01 | 4929 | 2467 | |
| 12/01 | 3086 | 3856 |
However, information on onset of symptoms continued to be recorded in the CCT system and therefore the CSO has changed the methodology used to estimate the epidemiological date to include the symptom onset date from the CCT system thus reflecting the date of symptom onset more accurately, in addition to correcting for reporting delays.
Using the CCT data source, which was not impacted by the backlog of cases, to estimate epidemiological date we can see that the surge in cases started around December 20. The peak in daily cases was in or around December 28 (5,508 cases). The daily cases at that point reached a plateau until January 4 at which time we see a turning point with daily cases beginning to fall. (Note: as the epidemiological date relates most closely to symptom onset it is expected that figures provided in more recent days will be revised upwards in the CCT Epidemiological Date series. Data reported beyond January 12 on CIDR confirmed cases is not included in this series.)
Due to the reduction in information collected in CIDR over the last number of weeks, data on Heath Care Workers, Outbreaks and Underlying conditions has not been included in this bullettin.
Key Findings:
This is the nineteenth 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 08 January 2021.
Confirmed Cases
For the week ending 08 January, the number of weekly cases was 26,343, a decrease of 8,670 from the previous week. This is the second highest weekly number of cases since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic last March with the previous week ending 01 January being the highest at 35,013 cases. The total number of confirmed cases to date is 150,926.
Dublin accounted for just under a third (8,050) of all new cases for the week ending 08 January and it was the second week in a row that Dublin had more than 8,000 weekly cases. Cork was the county with the second highest number of new cases (3,223) for the week ending 08 January. Five other counties, Galway, Limerick, Louth, Meath and Wexford, had more than 1,000 weekly cases in the week ending 08 January.
The median age of new confirmed COVID-19 cases was 37 years old for the week ending 08 January. The median age for all cases is 38 years old. Galway has the lowest median age at 31 while Wicklow is highest at 42.
Since the start of the pandemic, some 7,316 more females were diagnosed with COVID-19 than males.
The 25-44 age group still showed the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases at 51,321. In the last two weeks, this age group has made up 36% of weekly confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Hospitalisations
Table 6 shows weekly hospitalisations and admission to Intensive Care Units (ICU). These are dated using the epidemiological date of infection and so can be compared with confirmed cases. Hospitalisations have been increasing since the week ending 11 December, but recent trends in confirmed cases in hospitals suggest that the numbers reported for the last two weeks will be revised upwards and thus are marked as provisional.
Figure 2 shows monthly hospitalisation rates (per 1,000 confirmed cases) by age group. For all cases hospitalisation rates are highest for the over 80s at 255 and for those aged 65-79 years at 258 per 1,000 confirmed cases. Those aged 0-24 years are lowest at 18 per 1,000 confirmed case. (Note: It is important to note that there is a time lag between onset of symptoms and hospital admission).
| 0-24 years | 25-44 years | 45-64 years | 65-79 years | 80 years and over | All Ages | |
| March | 94.4135103947696 | 103.903746152232 | 172.079431369524 | 421.964326682744 | 442.079969063933 | 186.885600086421 |
| April | 58.4232326911642 | 93.8765927170961 | 133.245461885244 | 298.485253577071 | 190.176671785758 | 145.610612563402 |
| May | 32.6878255635559 | 79.532305653647 | 116.691878051679 | 410.84466575634 | 313.333163082895 | 140.865212727923 |
| June | 58.8752996874147 | 75.1792288316218 | 126.477996740258 | 315.267733810027 | 191.216734202168 | 115.869017632242 |
| July | 50.7128831213182 | 44.7152067191104 | 78.8800973828363 | 130.068245684464 | 231.785 | 63.3423180592992 |
| August | 20.4516144517093 | 23.8984983261399 | 50.5564543978889 | 123.406900839291 | 272.346263921195 | 37.923531240286 |
| September | 19.8862945620855 | 31.8281386101175 | 62.5536033023682 | 146.741252115205 | 190.19214420042 | 46.7026783704704 |
| October | 8.3160788456317 | 24.292043922173 | 42.8264993309159 | 142.942793438332 | 237.582076987832 | 36.3157474658792 |
| November | 7.49625728436077 | 33.575822982962 | 63.6929805878442 | 273.361459049996 | 352.010928257556 | 65.7539722194464 |
Referrals and Testing
There were 149,883 referrals for community testing where a valid reservation was recorded in the week ending 08 January. Referrals for testing increased in the last week, in particular among the 25 – 44 age groups, which increased from 50,260 to 58,547 in the week ending 08 January. Some 70% of referrals were from GPs in the week ending 08 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, General COVID-19 testing and Healthcare/ Essential worker testing has increased in January to date.
Testing numbers cannot be directly compared with referrals for community testing; there is a significant number of tests completed in hospitals as well as a time lag between referral and test completion. Several referrals also do not result in a test being completed. However, weekly testing numbers from HSE labs and hospitals show there were 174,158 tests completed in the week ending 08 January. The positivity rate in the week ending 08 January was 22.4%, up from 16% the previous week.
Deaths
The results produced by the CSO in Table 2 are based on the Actual Date of Death. Using this method, the CSO has found that the number of people who have died due to COVID-19 has been greater than 25 for each of the last thirteen weeks and Dublin continues to be the worst hit.
Since the start of the pandemic, the total number of people who have died due to COVID-19 in Ireland is 2,096, with a further 231 deaths cited as probable deaths linked to the virus. For the week ending 08 January, 85 deaths were recorded.
The virus claimed the lives of 122 more men than women up to and including the week ending 08 January. It also continues to impact the older age groups the hardest, with 64% of all confirmed COVID-19 deaths to date in the 80 years old or older age group.
From Table A we can see the overall mortality rate is 26 per 1,000 confirmed cases. (Note: These figures may need to be revised as there is a time lag between onset of symptoms and death.)
Contacts
The average number of contacts per positive case per week was three in the week ending 08 January, down from four contacts per case in late December. This implies details of more than 79,000 close contacts were recorded in the week.
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 19 - Table 2-2A (XLS 27KB)
Table 3: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 19 - Table 3-3A (XLS 34KB)
Table 4: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 19 - Table 4-4A (XLS 41KB)
Table 6: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 19 - Table 6-6A (XLS 23KB)
Table 9: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 19 - Table 9. (XLS 18KB)
