Worrying rise in Covid numbers in mid-west

The Department of Public Health Mid-West is expressing serious concerns over a rapid increase in Covid-19 cases in Limerick, connected to social gatherings in the past two weeks.

According to provisional Public Health Mid-West data, there were 11 cases on Sunday, 20 cases on Monday, 22 cases on Tuesday, 38 cases on Wednesday, and 46 new cases on Thursday in Limerick City and County.

Activities contributing to this increase in cases include house parties, indoor gatherings, social activities surrounding last week’s Eid celebrations, and significant onward transmission from weekend social events into workplaces.

Though the cyber attack on HSE IT systems has caused significant disruption to Public Health, our team remains in a strong position to identify these behavioural trends and swiftly manage new outbreaks.

Our priority is to identify new cases, isolate them, and undertake contact tracing. The faster this happens, the faster we can control the spread of Covid-19. If you have symptoms or are concerned that you have been exposed to possible infection, please make attempts to arrange a PCR test at the Limerick Covid Test Centre.

Dr Mai Mannix, Director of Public Health Mid-West, said: “We have not seen this level of infection in the community since early March, which is a very worrying trend. If daily cases continue at this rate, coupled with the health service’s coping with the sinister cyber attack, we will find ourselves in a very troubling position.”