One area of Roscommon accounts for two thirds of all new COVID-19 cases

One part of county Roscommon accounts for two thirds of all new COVID-19 cases in the county over the most recent fortnight for which figures are available.

Figures for the 14-day period from September 15 to September 28 show that there were 43 new cases in the Boyle electoral area – a rate of 197 per 100,000 people.

This is significantly ahead of the national average of 88.2 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population and is actually the fifth highest rate per population of COVID-19 outside Dublin.

The Lifford-Stranorlar area has the worst incidence of COVID-19 of any electoral area across the country, at 602.6 per 100k, followed by Celbridge (305.2), Monaghan (202.7), Letterkenny (198) and then Boyle.

Boyle had the highest rate of cases reported per 100,000 population in Roscommon during the previous 14-day period (September 8 to September 21), at 87, but the figures show a rapid rise in the number over the past week.

Last night, it emerged that there have been eleven new confirmed COVID-19 cases in each of the other two electoral areas of the county, Athlone and Roscommon, during the most recent 14-day period.

The Athlone electoral area is now showing a rate of 55.1 per 100,000 people, the exact same rate of the virus per population for the previous period, September 8 to September 21.

However, in the Roscommon electoral area, the rate has climbed from 22 per 100,000 last time to 48.4 per 100,000 on this occasion.

READ MORE: The level of cases in Westmeath, including the Athlone area of that county.

The figures are compiled by Department of Health, the Ordnance Survey Ireland, the All-Island Research Observatory, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, the Health Service Executive, and the Central Statistics Office.

The full details for all electoral areas in the country are available here