Almost 3,300 Covid-19 cases in nursing homes in past month

The past month has seen almost 3,300 Covid-19 cases linked to an outbreak in nursing homes, almost 900 linked to residential institutions, and more than 1,000 linked to hospital and long-stay units. File picture: PA

The past month has seen almost 3,300 Covid-19 cases linked to an outbreak in nursing homes, almost 900 linked to residential institutions, and more than 1,000 linked to hospital and long-stay units, official data has suggested.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) analysis of Covid-19 patterns on cases and deaths coincided with the release of its findings on air and sea travel that showed 164,400 passenger arrivals into Ireland in December.

Some 318 people died in the week ending January 22, more than 10% of all deaths to date, with more than 100 people dying in each of the last three weeks.

Dublin accounted for just over 2,900, or 31%, of all new cases in the week ending January 22, the CSO said, with Cork the only other county going over the 1,000 mark in the same week. 

People aged 25-44 years still showed the highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases, at just over 64,000, it said.

This is the third week in a row that Leitrim has recorded fewer than 100 new cases, while Longford has recorded fewer than 100 new cases for two consecutive weeks.

Passenger arrivals

Meanwhile, in terms of movement in and out of Ireland in December, the 164,400 passenger arrivals marked an increase of more than 58% compared to November, the CSO said.

Some 178,800 passengers departed, compared to 96,800 departures in November, or an increase of almost 85%.

Despite the marked increase in arrivals and departures last month, which has been the subject of much speculation as to how much it contributed to the huge spike in cases around Christmas time, the numbers were far smaller than the same month in 2019.

There were 1,372,600 arrivals and 1,383,800 departures in December 2019 — falls of 88% and 87% respectively compared to the December just gone.

Countries with the greatest numbers coming in were Britain with just over 65,100, the Netherlands with 14,700, and Spain with 13,100, the CSO data showed.