County at centre of Omicron surge

New figures have shown that the Omicron variant surged through Westmeath in the period from Christmas to New Year.

The rate per population of positive Covid-19 cases in Westmeath was, by a significant amount, the highest in the country, it has emerged.

There were a whopping 2,713 cases recorded in Westmeath in the week from December 26 to January 1, according to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.

This gave an incidence rate of 3,056.2 per 100,000 population, well in excess of the national average of 1,365 per 100,000.

The extent of the surge in Westmeath is shown by the fact that no other county in the country recorded an incidence rate of above 2,000 per 100,000 population, with Clare at 1,974.5, the next highest after Westmeath. In fact Westmeath accounted for 4.2% of all cases in the country during that week.

The median age of the cases in Westmeath was 29, while the ratio of male to female in the cases was 0.9.

At the other extreme, Kerry had the lowest incidence of positive cases per population during the Christmas to New Year period, at 884.9 per 100,000.

The high level of cases in Westmeath was likely given the extreme demand for PCR tests locally.

Figures provided to the Westmeath Independent by the HSE press office showed that the test centre at Athlone GAA Club offered 6,221 appointments for tests during the week between Wednesday, December 29 and Tuesday, January 4 (inclusive).