There was a significant drop in the number of Covid-19 cases in Roscommon yesterday (Wednesday) as the county recorded five or fewer for the first time since Sunday.
Nationally, there were a further 362 cases recorded yesterday and two more deaths. One of the deaths took place in October while the other is currently under investigation by health officials. 280 people are being treated for the virus in hospital and 38 are in ICU, which was down two from Tuesday. There had been 21 additional hospitalisations in the previous 24 hours.
There had been 18 new cases recorded in Roscommon on Tuesday and eight on Monday. This had led to concerns locally that the trend would continue to rise this week after the Department of health had announced that there had been five or fewer cases on Sunday and no new cases last Saturday.
The drop in the number of cases in Roscommon over the fourteen days from October 28th to November 10th means the county’s 14-day incidence rate is currently at 168.9 per 100,000 population. This is still higher than the national rate of 145.0 for the same period and the fourth highest rate overall.
Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tony Holohan said the profile of the disease was improving but urged the public not to become complacent.
“I urge everyone to redouble their efforts, try and have fewer close contacts this week than you did last week, continue to social distance and follow the other vitally important public health guidelines,” he said.
Dr. Holohan added: “I also want to thank those who have self-isolated after receiving a positive Covid-19 test result; or having been identified as a close contact of a confirmed case.
“Self-isolating is a vital measure in our efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19 and it is essential that all those asked to self-isolate continue to do so”.
