More than 5 per cent of the State’s population have been infected with Covid-19 since the pandemic began.

According to the latest figures produced by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), the incidence rate of Covid-19 is now 5,001.1 per 100,000 of the population.

It means that at least one person in 20 in the State has had Covid-19 since the pandemic began in March last year. The figure is likely to be significantly greater than that, however, as many people who have been asymptomatic have not had a test.

Hospital Report

Some 3,626 more cases were recorded in the week to April 6th, bringing the total number of cases reported in the State up to that date to 239,325.

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The number of new cases that week was down 9 per cent on the previous seven days and down by 92 per cent compared with the peak of the pandemic in the first week of January when 45,616 cases were recorded.

The number of new cases reported daily in the State has been flat for the last five weeks, but the number of deaths and hospitalisations continues to decrease. There were 226 people in hospital on Thursday morning, down 18 per cent on the same figure last week.

Deaths

The HPSC data has also revealed that of the 4,727 people who died as a result of Covid-19, 4,101 (87 per cent) had underlying conditions.

Some 92 per cent of those who died were over the age of 65 and 42.6 per cent of the total dead were over the age of 85.

Men were significantly more likely than women to die as a result of Covid-19 (52.7 per cent versus 47.3 per cent), but women were more likely to get Covid-19.

The ratio of males to females getting Covid-19 was almost the reverse of deaths. To date 124,525 women (52.3 per cent) have had the virus in comparison with 113,537 men (47.7 per cent).

The figures showed the effect of the vaccine programme, with a dramatic fall off in the numbers of elderly people getting Covid-19.

In the week to April 6th, just 33 people over the age of 85 were confirmed with Covid-19. In the first week of January, before mass vaccinations of the elderly began, there were 759 cases in people aged over 85.

In the same week, 86 healthcare workers tested positive for Covid-19. In the 13 days between January 3rd and 16th, and before the mass vaccination of healthcare workers, 6,834 were confirmed as Covid-19 positive.

Offaly continued to have the highest rate of infection in the week ending April 6th, with a seven-day incidence rate of 198.8 per 100,000 of the population. It was followed by Westmeath (145.3 per 100,000), Laois (135.8 per 100,000) and Dublin (117.8 per 100,000). The lowest rates in the country are Sligo (10.7 per 100,000) and Kilkenny (9 per 100,000).