Laois has one of highest Covid-19 rates as nurses call for mask measures
With Covid-19 making a summer comeback in Ireland latest figures show that Laois has the fourth highest incidence of Covid-19 in the country while the county's hospital continues to treat people who have tested positive.
Weekly figures published on June 16 shows that the incidence is 166.5 per 100,000 population in Laois on the back of 141 new cases in the previous seven days. The median age of people testing positive is 44.
Laois sits behind Limerick, Clare, Louth and Galway for counties reporting the highest infection rates according to the figures published by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.
The HPSC also reported that in week 23, between June 05 and June 11 2022, there were 6,839 new confirmed COVID-19
cases reported on CIDR. This is an increase of 46.4% compared to week 22 when there were 4,672 confirmed COVID-19 cases notified.
The highest number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases in week 23 was in the age group of 35-44 years with 20.4% of notified cases in week 23.
Meanwhile, HSE figures there were seven people with the virus being treated at the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise on Sunday, June 19. None were critically ill according to the COVID-19 COVID-19 Daily Operations Update for Acute Hospitals.
There were two available general beds and one ICU bed available at the hospital during Sunday.
The General Secretary of the Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation has urged mask wearing be brought back on public transport to deal with the surging number of COVID-19 cases in Ireland.
“There are very real reasons why masks have been shown to slow down transmission and that is what we need now because our hospitals are overcrowded to a level that we normally don’t see in winter - and it’s June,” General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha told Virgin Media News.
A total of 593 people were in Irish hospitals with the virus on Sunday evening. Of these, 79 had tested positive in the previous 24 hours. There were 23 people in ICU with the virus on June 19.