Key Findings
Change of basis for weekly profile of cases in Table 3 The date used for reporting on weekly cases in this bulletin has changed from being mainly based on ‘Date of diagnosis’ to ‘Epidemiological date’, in line with Health Protection Surveillance Centre daily reports. This date is the earliest of onset date, date of diagnosis, laboratory specimen collection date, laboratory received date, laboratory reported date, and event creation/notification date. The reason for the change is that this date more closely relates to the time of likely infection than the date of diagnosis, particularly for cases that were tested abroad in early April as part of the backlog at that time. The peak in the revised trend is much flatter than when based on date of diagnosis (see Figure 1). The recent county level trends and socio-economic profiles reported in previous Bulletins are similar in this revised series, with the trend from cities to independent urban towns and towards lower income groups still present. The age standardised death and case rates reported in Table 5 are unaffected by this change. |
X-axis label | Date of Diagnosis | Epidemiological Date |
---|---|---|
13/03/2020 | 110 | 932 |
20/03/2020 | 601 | 2947 |
27/03/2020 | 1511 | 3440 |
03/04/2020 | 2220 | 3460 |
10/04/2020 | 4028 | 3278 |
17/04/2020 | 6049 | 2814 |
24/04/2020 | 3710 | 3594 |
01/05/2020 | 2878 | 1867 |
08/05/2020 | 1621 | 1051 |
15/05/2020 | 1148 | 690 |
22/05/2020 | 622 | 495 |
29/05/2020 | 393 | 327 |
This is the fourth publication in our new series of information bulletins produced by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), that aims to provide insights on those who have either died or contracted COVID-19, by using data from the Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting (CIDR) provided to the CSO by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.
CSO analysis of hospital admittance rates has found that 3,872 people needed to be hospitalised as a result of the virus - 15% of all positive cases. Last week, the week ended 5 June, 18 people were hospitalised, down from 656 people at the peak, the week ended 27 March. More of the new cases from recent weeks may need to be hospitalised if their symptoms or underlying conditions deteriorate.
The CSO has also examined the admittance rates for those who needed further treatment in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) due to the virus and found 413 of people required treatment in ICU.
The median age of all those who were hospitalised as a result of the virus is 63, while the median age of all those admitted to ICUs is 60. This compares to the median age for all cases which is 48 and to the median age of all deaths which is 83.
Of all those who were hospitalised, 62% had an underlying condition. Almost 90% of all those treated in ICUs (87%) had an underlying condition.
Just over half of all cases that required hospitalisation were men (51%), but more men than women were admitted to ICUs (68%).
Week Ending | Not Hospitilised | Hospitilised |
---|---|---|
13/03/2020 | 740 | 192 |
20/03/2020 | 2476 | 471 |
27/03/2020 | 2784 | 656 |
03/04/2020 | 2820 | 640 |
10/04/2020 | 2712 | 566 |
17/04/2020 | 2422 | 392 |
24/04/2020 | 3269 | 325 |
01/05/2020 | 1666 | 201 |
08/05/2020 | 905 | 146 |
15/05/2020 | 607 | 83 |
22/05/2020 | 419 | 76 |
29/05/2020 | 289 | 38 |
05/06/2020 | 96 | 18 |
Deaths:
The data produced by the CSO in Table 2 is based on the Actual Date of Death. Using this method, the CSO has found that while the number of people who have died from COVID-19 has fallen for the seventh week in a row, Dublin remains the hardest hit. Dublin is now the only county to record more than five deaths each week for the last four weeks
The virus claimed the lives of 34 more men than women on a confirmed basis up to and including the week ending 5 June.
It also continues to impact the older age groups the hardest, with 65% of all confirmed COVID-19 deaths to date aged 80 years old or older.
Confirmed Cases:
This is the sixth straight week that confirmed cases of COVID-19 have fallen.
The week ending 5 June was the first week Dublin had less than 100 weekly cases since the start of March. There were 54 new cases in Dublin in the week ending 5 June, down from the peak of 1,869 cases in the week ending 27 March.
Cork was the only other county to record more than 10 new cases in the week ended 5 June.
This is the fourth week in a row that Clare, Leitrim, Longford, Tipperary, Wexford and Wicklow have recorded less than 10 new cases, while it is the fifth week in a row that Donegal, Laois and Kerry have recorded less than 10 new cases. It is the sixth such week for Sligo and Waterford.
While some 3,629 more females were diagnosed with COVID-19 than males, the median age remain consistent for both women and men.
The 25-44 age group show the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases at 8,656.
Almost 40% of cases are now linked to an outbreak, up from 27% in early March.
Health care workers continue to make up almost a third of all cases.
The Standardised Confirmed Incidence Rate (SCIR), the rate of incidence of COVID-19 in a population adjusted to a standard age distribution, of persons in the least deprived area (quintile 1) was 625 per 100,000 population while it was 478 per 100,000 population in the most deprived areas (quintile 5) and 549 per 100,000 population in all areas. The SCIR of people in Dublin is 76% higher at 967 per 100,000 with the Mid-East (600 per 100,000) and Midlands at (584 per 100,000) the only other regions above the national rate.
Further analysis of the distribution of cases by deprivation level comparing Dublin and the rest of the country is presented in this release. This analysis finds that Dublin has a broadly similar profile of cases by deprivation level to the rest of the country, with the highest levels of SCIR reported in quintiles 2-4. These middle ranking quintiles in Dublin rank more highly in national deprivation levels and thus contribute to the high SCIR for the least deprived national quintile. The lowest SCIR (at 383 per 100,000 population) in the rest of the country is in the most deprived quintile which explains the National result for this quintile.
For further COVID-19 related information go to the CSO COVID-19 Information Hub