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COVID Deaths and Cases

From 28 February 2020 to 30 April 2021

CSO statistical release, , 11am

COVID-19 Insight Bulletins: Deaths and Cases, Series 30

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

Key Findings:

  • There were 10 COVID-19 related deaths in the week ending 30 April 2021
  • For the week ending 30 April, the number of weekly cases was 2,737, a decrease of 11% from the previous week
  • The proportion of daily cases among those over the age of 65 has been decreasing steadily in recent weeks with the percentage of cases in this age group having fallen from 18% in the week ending 29 January to 4% in the week ending 30 April
  • Kerry, Leitrim and Sligo had 10 cases or fewer in the same week
  • Hospitalisations have been decreasing since the week ending 15 January and were 82 in the week ending 30 April from a peak of 1,469
  • ICU admissions have been decreasing since the week ending 08 January and there were seven in the week ending 30 April, down from a peak of 155
  • The average number of contacts per positive case per week was 3.9 in the week ending 30 April
  • Wexford was the county with the highest average number of contacts per positive case at 5.4 for the week ending 30 April
  • The under 24 age group made up 47% of all cases linked to an outbreak over the last four weeks
  • There were 232 cases (6% of all linked cases in the last four weeks) linked to an outbreak in schools, 209 cases (5%) were linked to an outbreak in childcare facility and 624 cases (15%) linked to an outbreak in the workplace in the last four weeks
  • The Human Health & Social Work Activities sector now accounts for 10% of cases with a linked employment record, down from 33% in the week ending 30 January
Week Ending Number in hospital at week endTotal confirmed COVID-19 deathsNumber in ICU at week endTotal Cases
12/029592701735625
19/027541921535131
26/025741311364264
05/03426801003308
12/0334453863601
19/0333649873827
26/0331742663919
02/0426441623398
09/0421220532792
16/0419018532558
23/0416614483089
30/0413910442737
Table A: Weekly Profile of COVID-19 1,2,3,4
  
 12/0219/0226/0205/0312/0319/0326/0302/0409/0416/0423/0430/04*
Total Cases5,6255,1314,2643,3083,6013,8273,9193,3982,7922,5583,0892,737
             
% over 6511%11%10%8%8%9%7%7%5%5%6%4%
             
% asymptomatic24%25%24%26%25%25%27%29%26%26%27%27%
             
Number in hospital at week end959754574426344336317264212190166139
             
Number in ICU at week end1731531361008687666253534844
             
Total confirmed COVID-19 deaths270192131805349424120181410
             
* latest week is preliminary
1 Table includes data as of 5th May 2021 for events created on CIDR (Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting) up to midnight Friday 30th April 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 who 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 thirtieth 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 (HPSC) and data from the HSE’s Swiftcare (A2i) and COVID Care Tracker (CCT) systems. This Bulletin covers the period from 28 February 2020 to 30 April 2021.

Deaths

For the week ending 30 April, 10 deaths were recorded among confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Throughout the pandemic, most deaths have occurred in the older age groups. In the week ending 30 April 2021, 70% of deaths were in people aged 65 years and over.

No county recorded more than five deaths in the week ending 30 April 2021.

From Table B we can see the overall mortality rate is 19 per 1,000 confirmed cases. This was highest in April 2020 at 77 per 1,000 confirmed cases. The mortality rate was one per 1,000 in April 2021, down from 23 in January 2021. (Note: These figures may need to be revised as there is a time lag between onset of symptoms and death.)

Confirmed Cases

For the week ending 30 April, the number of weekly cases was 2,737, a decrease of 11% from the previous week.

Those aged 25-44 made up 33% of confirmed cases in the week ending 30 April with those aged 65 and over making up 4%.

There were 55 health care workers diagnosed in the week ending 30 April, this is the lowest weekly figure since the week ending 14 August 2020.

Dublin accounted for just under two-fifths (1,074) of all new cases for the week ending 30 April.

Kildare was the county with the second highest number of new cases (261) for the week ending 30 April.

Cork and Donegal recorded 216 and 195 cases respectively for the week ending 30 April.

Kerry, Leitrim and Sligo had 10 cases or fewer in the same week.

0-14 years15-24 years25-44 years45-64 years65-79 years80 years and over
05/03598613111670720371
12/03720713117770022566
19/03949535131769024492
26/031015566134873119565
02/04803517116967917159
09/04605494101054411920
16/0452645585459610720
23/04640577103866314031
30/046725549264978414

Hospitalisations

In Table 6, Hospitalisations have been decreasing since the peak of 1,469 in the week ending 15 January to 82 hospitalisations in the week ending 30 April. ICU admissions have also decreased from the peak of 155 in the week ending 08 January to seven in the week ending 30 April. 

Throughout the whole period of the pandemic from March 2020 to the week ending 30 April 2021, the over 65 age category accounted for 54% of all persons hospitalised.

Since the start of the pandemic, 53% of those hospitalised were male but males accounted for 65% of those admitted to ICU.

From Table B, it can be seen that the hospitalisation rate was 36 and the ICU rate four per 1,000 confirmed cases in April 2021 (Note: These figures may need to be adjusted if someone’s condition worsens as there is a time lag between onset of symptoms and hospitalisation.)

Mortality RateHospitalisation RateICU Rate
March4515725
April7711513
May4211010
June401010
July0400
August4264
September7365
October7354
November18746
December9324
January23575
February14706
March7525
April1364
Table B: COVID-19 Mortality, Hospitalisation and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission rates (per 1,000 confirmed cases) by Month
 All cases
 20202021  
 MarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecJanFebMarApr*All months
                
Mortality Rate45774235..47718923147119
Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Rate251310....4546456546
Hospitalisation Rate1571151101013926363574325770523657
             
Hospitalisation Rate by age               
0-24 years633925..3781181191317141213
25-44 years694436691616141729132134302824
45-64 years141102941276630503869334776675356
65-79 years401285379348..111157156308122206291238182213
80 years and over429176275128..291215274437267290370473434286
* latest month is provisional
1 Table includes data as of 5th May 2021 for events created on CIDR (Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting) and is subject to revision
2 Cases 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

Contacts

In Table 5, the average number of contacts per positive case per week was 3.9 in the week ending 30 April 2021. This figure has been consistent since the week ending 19 February.

Wexford was the county with the highest average number of contacts per positive case at 5.4 for the week ending 30 April 2021.

Average Contacts per County
Kerry2.3
Cavan2.8
Kilkenny2.8
Leitrim3
Sligo3
Galway3.3
Mayo3.3
Longford3.4
Dublin3.5
Monaghan3.5
Meath3.7
Waterford3.7
Westmeath3.8
All Counties3.9
Clare4
Laois4
Roscommon4
Tipperary4
Kildare4.3
Louth4.3
Donegal4.4
Carlow4.6
Cork4.7
Limerick4.7
Offaly4.7
Wicklow5.1
Wexford5.4

Outbreaks

Public Health report outbreaks to HPSC and link cases to these outbreaks. Public Health are prioritising the reporting of outbreaks in key settings e.g. Regional Care Facilities (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, 4,046 cases have been linked to an outbreak. The under 24 age group made up 47% of all cases linked to an outbreak over this period. There were 232 cases (6%) linked to an outbreak in schools, 209 cases (5%) were linked to an outbreak in childcare facility and 624 cases (15%) linked to an outbreak in the workplace in the last four weeks.

The number of outbreaks in healthcare settings continues to fall with 46 (1%) cases lined to an outbreak in the last four weeks in hospital or a community hospital/long-stay unit and 36 (1%) in residential institutions.     

Referrals and Testing

In Table 9, there were 100,747 referrals for community testing where a valid reservation was recorded in the week ending 30 April an increase of 30% from 77,421 the week before. There was an increase of more than 20% in all age groups up to 65 years old.  Referrals from GPs are at 61% up from 51% in week ending 16 April. Analysis on referral speciality type increased across all specialty types except testing of close contacts.

Weekly testing numbers from the Health Service Executive (HSE) labs and hospitals show there were 124,418 tests completed in the week ending 30 April. The positivity rate in the week ending 30 April was 2.7%, down from 2.8% the previous week.

Sector of Employment

In Table 10, the CSO has used Revenue PAYE Modernisation system data to provide insight on employment status of COVID-19 cases. Using pseudonymised identifiers more than 80% of confirmed cases in the CIDR database could be linked to administrative data sources, and 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 to a record of employment in that month (or most recently available record of employment, currently March 2021 for cases reported in April); a further adjustment has been made to account for those coming off the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) scheme). 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. In Figure 4, it can be seen that 18% of reported cases with a record of employment in the week ending 01 May were employed in the Wholesale & Retail Trade; repair of motor vehicles & motorcycles sector. The Human health and Social Work activities sector now accounts for 10% of cases, down from 33% in the week ending 30 January.

Cases week ending 01 May 2021
Agriculture, forestry & fishing (A)1
Industry (B-E)14
Construction (F)8
Wholesale and retail trade (G)18
Transportation and storage (H)4
Accommodation and food service activities (I)6
Information and communication(J)3
Financial, insurance and real estate activities(K-L)5
Professional, scientific and technical activities (M)6
Administrative and support service activities (N)6
Public administration and defence (O)4
Education(P)8
Human health and social work activities (Q)10
Other nace activities (R-U)2
Unknown5
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 April 30 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

Table 10: COVID-19 cases with Employment Information

Full statistical tables can be downloaded here:

Table 2: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 30 - Table 2-2A (XLS 38KB)

Table 3: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 30 - Table 3-3A (XLS 49KB)

Table 4: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 30 - Table 4-4A (XLS 52KB)

Table 6: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 30 - Table 6-6A (XLS 28KB)

Table 7: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 30 - Table 7-7A (XLS 66KB)

Table 9: COVID-19 Deaths and Cases Series 30 - Table 9. (XLS 21KB)

Further Information

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