Covid-19: Two deaths and 264 confirmed cases

Picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

There have been two additional deaths related to Covid-19, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) has said.

This brings the death toll from the virus in the Republic to 2,126.

In the first two weeks of December, there have been 38 deaths related to Covid-19.

In total, there were 148 such deaths in November.

The HPSC has also been notified of 264 confirmed cases of Covid-19. There are now a total of 76,449 cases of the coronavirus in Ireland.

As of 2pm this afternoon, there are 215 Covid patients in hospital, of which 33 are in ICU.

There have been 17 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

The national 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 currently stands at 83.4 - down from 84.3 yesterday.

Donegal continues to have the highest incidence in the country with a 14-day rate of 225.5.

Kilkenny continues to creep towards the 200 mark with a current rate of 199.5 per 100,000.

Seven other counties have an incidence rate above 100 - Louth (175.4), Carlow (166.9), Longford (134.6), Limerick (126.2), Monaghan (117.3), Cavan (111.6) and Mayo (106.5).

Of the 264 cases confirmed today, 79 are located in Dublin, 24 in Donegal, 19 in Kerry, 18 in Limerick and 14 in both Kildare and Wexford.

The remaining 96 cases are spread across 16 other counties.

Meanwhile, the number of healthcare workers contracting the virus continues to grow.

According to figures from the Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation (INMO), 15% of cases that occurred between November 29 and December 5 were healthcare workers.

The data from the INMO shows 12,283 (16.5%) of Covid-19 cases confirmed since March have been among healthcare workers with 3,677 of these being nurses.

The INMO said nurses continue to be the largest group of healthcare workers infected with the virus.

The organisation is calling for a repeal of the derogation policy which it says brings potentially Covid-positive healthcare staff back to work before completing their self-isolation period.

It has also called for the same self-isolation periods to apply to healthcare workers as for the general public.

It says the period for healthcare workers is currently seven days, compared to 14 days for the general public.

The INMO is calling on the Government to classify Covid-19 as an occupational illness in order to give the Health and Safety Authority the power to investigate and inspect.