'Do not adopt a wait and see approach' - Holohan
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 55 additional deaths related to COVID-19 and 827 new cases, six of whom have addresses in County Cavan, 36 in County Meath and 13 in County Westmeath.
The median age of those who died is 86 years and the age range is 49-100 years.
There has been a total of 3,674 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.
The figures are up do date as of midnight, Friday, February 5.
There have now been a total of 202,548 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland since the virus was first confirmed here almost a year ago on February 29, 2020.
Of the cases notified today:
- 409 are men / 416 are women
- 63% are under 45 years of age
- The median age is 38 years old
The breakdown of today's cases reveals 297 are in Dublin, 76 in Cork, 56 in Galway, 46 in Wexford, 37 in Kildare and the remaining 315 cases are spread across all other counties.
As of 2pm today, 1,177 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, 177 of whom are in ICU. There have been 29 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.
Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health said: “There are a few old habits that collectively we have to break in order to suppress COVID-19 together. We know that people who feel unwell typically avoid calling their GP over the weekend, and wait to see if they improve. You should no longer do that – you must phone your GP at the first sign of anything like COVID-19 symptoms. Do not adopt a ‘wait and see’ approach.
“Similarly, do not leave your house or go to work if you have any cold or flu like symptoms at all. Breaking these habits will limit COVID-19’s opportunity to spread from person to person.”
The 14-day incidence rate of the virus now stands at 345.6 per 100,000 of population. Cavan's rate is running considerably below that at 263.9/100K. Westmeath is just below that at 249/100K and County Meath is in line with the national average at 345.6 cases per 100,000 of population over the past fortnight.
Meanwhile, County Monaghan retains the highest rate at 781.9 cases per 100,000 of population. There were 21 new cases confirmed for the Farney county in the figures announced this evening - with its five day moving average at 23 cases per day.