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COVID Deaths and Cases

From 28 February 2020 to 19 March 2021

CSO statistical release, , 11am

COVID-19 Insight Bulletins: Deaths and Cases, Series 27

Information on the people who have died due to COVID-19 or have been diagnosed with the virus.

Key Findings:

  • The proportion of daily cases among those over the age of 65 has been decreasing for a number of weeks as the vaccine roll-out continues with the percentage of cases in this age group falling from 18% in the week ending 29 January to 9% in the week ending 19 March
  • Throughout the whole period of the pandemic from March 2020 to week ending 19 March 2021, the over 65 age category accounted for 56% of all persons hospitalised
  • There were 88 health care workers diagnosed with the virus in the week ending 19 March, this is the lowest weekly figure since the week ending 21 August 2020
  • The proportion of asymptomatic cases within the total weekly positive cases has been increasing over recent weeks from 17% in the week ending 29 January to 24% of all cases in the week ending 19 March
  • There were 38 COVID-19 related deaths in the week ending 19 March 2021
  • In the week ending 19 March 2021, 87% of deaths were among people aged 65 years and over
  • The number of cases for the week ending 19 March was 3,174, a decrease of 331 cases from the previous week
  • In the same week Dublin accounted for 1,369 cases or 43% of all new cases
  • Hospitalisations have been decreasing since the week ending 15 January and were 163 in the week ending 19 March from a peak of 1,386
  • ICU admissions have been decreasing since the week ending 08 January and there were eight in the week ending 19 March down from a peak of 137
  • The average number of contacts per positive case per week was three in the week ending 19 March, down from five contacts in the week ending 01 January
  • Dublin has the highest average contacts per positive case of almost four per positive case in the week ending 19 March
Table A: Weekly Profile of COVID-19 1,2,3,4
 2021
 01/0108/0115/0122/0129/0105/0212/0219/0226/0205/0312/0319/03
Total Cases36,02029,94518,81510,8148,2256,6475,6255,1314,2643,3083,5053,174
             
% over 6510%11%16%16%18%15%11%11%10%8%8%9%
             
% asymptomatic10%11%15%18%17%22%24%25%24%26%25%24%
             
Number in hospital at week end5081,1531,8461,9691,5521,258959754574426344336
             
Number in ICU at week end501071872182131811731531361008687
             
Total confirmed COVID-19 deaths68114315407410344244171116594438
             
* latest week is preliminary
1 Table includes data as of 24th March 2021 for events created on CIDR (Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting) up to midnight Friday 19th March 2021 and https://covid-19.geohive.ie/ and is subject to revision
2 Cases data are defined by epidemiological date which is the earliest of onset date, date of diagnosis, laboratory specimen collection date, laboratory received date, laboratory reported date and event creation/notification date. Deaths data are defined by date of death
3 Hospitalisation numbers include those admitted to hospital due to COVID-19 and those whose contracted COVID-19 while in hospital
4 Deaths include those who died of COVID-19 and those who died with COVID-19

This is the twenty-seventh 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 19 March 2021.

Deaths

For the week ending 19 March, 38 deaths were recorded among confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Throughout the pandemic, most deaths have occurred in the older age groups. In the week ending 19 March 2021, 87% of deaths were in people aged 65 years and over.

There were 14 deaths in Dublin in the week ending 19 March. No other counties recorded more than five deaths in the week.

Week ending 18 December 2020
0-14 years12
15-24
years
15
25-44
years
33
45-64 years28
65-79 years8
80 years and over4
Week ending 19 March 2021
0-14 years26
15-24 years14
25-44 years35
45-64 years17
65-79 years6
80 years and over2

Confirmed Cases

For the week ending 19 March, the number of weekly cases was 3,174, a decrease of 9% from the previous week.

Those aged 25-44 made up 35% of confirmed cases in the week ending 19 March with those aged 65 and over making up 8%.

There were 88 health care workers diagnosed in the week ending 19 March, this is the lowest weekly figure since the week ending 21 August 2020.

Dublin accounted for under a half (1,369) of all new cases for the week ending 19 March and it was the eleventh week in a row that weekly cases in Dublin have fallen. Meath was the county with the second highest number of new cases (190) for the week ending 19 March.

This is the fifth week in a row that Leitrim has recorded less than 25 new cases, the second week in a row that Kilkenny and Monaghan have recorded less than 25 new cases and the first such week for Mayo and Clare.

Figure 2 shows how although the number of new cases has fallen nationally by 9%, this varies across counties from a 65% decrease in Mayo to a 63% increase in Laois.

% change
Carlow3
Cavan44
Clare-31
Cork-38
Donegal-1
Dublin-2
Galway-4
Kerry-18
Kildare-48
Kilkenny-6
Laois63
Leitrim0
Limerick-38
Longford-28
Louth-16
Mayo-65
Meath-10
Monaghan-56
Offaly-15
Roscommon29
Sligo0
Tipperary20
Waterford30
Westmeath7
Wexford29
Wicklow-13

Hospitalisations

Hospitalisations have been decreasing since the peak of 1,386 in the week ending 15 January and to 163 hospitalisations in the week ending 19 March. ICU admissions have also decreased from the peak of 137 in the week ending 08 January to eight in the week ending 19 March. 

CountyAverage Contacts per County
Carlow1.8
Kerry2
Kilkenny2
Laois2
Monaghan2
Mayo2.1
Cork2.2
Westmeath2.3
Clare2.4
Leitrim2.4
Louth2.4
Sligo2.4
Wexford2.4
All Counties2.5
Cavan2.5
Longford2.5
Waterford2.5
Wicklow2.5
Donegal2.7
Kildare2.7
Limerick2.7
Tipperary2.7
Meath2.8
Roscommon2.8
Galway3.1
Offaly3.4
Dublin3.8

Contacts

The average number of contacts per positive case per week was three in the week ending 19 March, down from five contacts per case in the week ending 01 January. This implies details of more than 9,000 close contacts were recorded in the week.

From Figure 3, the range of close contacts can be seen per county, from an average of two contacts per case in Carlow to almost four per case in Dublin.

Outbreaks

Public Health report outbreaks to HPSC and link cases to these outbreaks. This process is taking longer with the recent surge in case numbers. Public Health are prioritising the reporting of outbreaks in key settings e.g. RCFs, hospitals. Therefore, the number of private house outbreaks is underestimated. Similarly, while every effort is being made to link cases to outbreaks as quickly as possible, there can sometimes be a delay in linking cases to the outbreak.

From Table 7 it can be seen that in the last four weeks 4,618 cases have been linked to an outbreak and of these 256 (6%) were in nursing homes, 216 (5%) were in hospital or a community hospital/long-stay unit and 400 (9%) were in residential institutions. 

There were 1,533 cases (33%) linked to an outbreak in private houses and 661 cases (14%) linked to an outbreak in the workplace in the last four weeks. The under 24 age group made up 30% of all cases linked to an outbreak over this period.

Referrals and Testing

There were 68,836 referrals for community testing where a valid reservation was recorded in the week ending 19 March. Referrals for testing increased in the last week and there was an increase of 60%, from 6,818 to 10,847, in referrals among the 0 – 14 age group. Some 50% of referrals were from GPs in the week ending 19 March. Analysis on referral speciality type shows that general contact testing / at risk groups has fallen by 1,220 and healthcare / essential worker testing has increased by 3,208 in the week ending 19 March.

Weekly testing numbers from HSE labs and hospitals show there were 93,976 tests completed in the week ending 19 March. The positivity rate in the week ending 19 March was 3.9%, up from 3.7% the previous week.

0 - 14 years15 - 24 years25 - 44 years45-64 years65-79 years80 years and over
01/011621723763502673749493775421
08/01963323013586974316694876815
15/01711416645540054303584677375
22/01614713245488564161177946430
29/01469710730391413195161225691
05/02514410350348802889353794291
12/02568811245325252524647023460
19/02475210635327252573344683179
26/02528311413288662270940472456
05/0353469025263462174035081716
12/0368189595256551848031131575
19/03108478462258771956330681019

Industry of Employment

In Table B the CSO has used Revenue PAYE Modernisation system data to provide insight on employment status of COVID-19 cases. Using pseudonymised keys over 80% of CIDR cases could be linked to administrative data sources, of these approximately 50% had a record of employment. As well as the strict legal protections set out in the Statistics Act, 1993, and other existing regulations, we are committed to protecting individual privacy and all identifiable information from each of the data sources used in our analysis, such as name, date of birth and addresses, are removed before use and only anonymised statistical aggregates are produced.

By matching the month the COVID-19 case is reported a record of employment in that month (or most recently available record of employment, currently January for cases reported in February and March) the results attempt to reflect the industry of an employee when they became a positive case in the CIDR system However, this does not indicate that the case is linked to an outbreak in the workplace.

 From the table B it can be seen that 14% of reported cases with a record of employment in the week ending 20 March were employed in the Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles sector. The Human health and social work activities and Public administration and defence; compulsory social security sectors combined now account for 20% of cases, down from 38% in the week ending 30 January.

Table B: COVID-19 cases with Employment Information
 20202021
 05/1212/1219/1226/1202/0109/0116/0123/0130/0106/0213/0220/0227/0206/0313/0320/03
Sector                
Agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)128182510518211571376223251814..8
Industry (B-E)84901402587552,2061,161729398317244239190160159148
Construction (F)2933821514511,209549304151156133108981017487
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (G)125931944221,1623,5581,599858485438384381288230197219
Transportation and storage (H)1724561002408473972261361521038270594950
Accommodation and food service activities (I)4331992655901,11347122815213413414878898371
Information and communication (J)1017501102628322931667566565150353844
Financial, insurance and real estate activities (K-L)3039751554621,4435463061601281089495686151
Professional, scientific and technical activities (M)2535761645321,38551224914413210293100745460
Administrative and support service activities (N)3937771533591,17163542322420716714913211011880
Public administration and defence; compulsory social security (O)1361141733251,0252,8391,9381,0684772902191591338789112
Education (P)48481062536711,687627296156126998781717581
Human health and social work activities (Q)1371292284208562,8422,0271,345864518302247228138127121
Other nace activities (R-U)252445892096302451056963554159303638
Unknown711182994294146111464730282127..15
                 
Total7677331,4372,9197,77322,23811,2616,4853,5742,8362,1591,9321,6411,2931,1791,185
'..' Indicates a cell number < 5 or a cell number < 5 can be identified 
Open in Excel:

Underlying Conditions

HPSC are currently reviewing underlying conditions data and for this reason information on underlying conditions has not been included in this bulletin. We will resume reporting on underlying conditions as soon as possible, following completion of this review.

For further COVID-19 related information go to the CSO COVID-19 Information Hub

Table 1 Profile of COVID-19 Deaths and Cases up to and including Friday March 19 2021

Table 2 & 2A Weekly Profile of COVID-19 Confirmed Deaths

Table 3 & 3A Weekly Profile of COVID-19 Confirmed Cases

Table 4 & 4A Weekly Electoral Division (ED) Analysis of Confirmed COVID-19 Cases

Table 5 Average Contacts per Positive COVID-19 case by Age Group and County

Table 6 & 6A Weekly Profile of New COVID-19 Cases who are Subsequently Hospitalised

Table 7 & 7A Weekly Profile of Confirmed Cases linked to COVID-19 Outbreaks

Table 9: Weekly Referrals for Community COVID-19 Tests, Tests Completed and Positivity Rate

Full statistical tables can be downloaded here:

Table 2: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 27 - Table 2-2A (XLS 36KB)

Table 3: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 27 - Table 3-3A (XLS 46KB)

Table 4: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 27 - Table 4-4A (XLS 48KB)

Table 6: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 27 - Table 6-6A (XLS 26KB)

Table 7: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 27 - Table 7-7A (XLS 61KB)

Table 9: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 27 - Table 9. (XLS 20KB)

 

Further Information

Contact
E-mail: Steven.Conroy@cso.ie