1,499 cases confirmed as Ireland named 'best country in the world' to live with Delta variant
Ireland began the year low in the monthly ranking when it had the worst Covid-19 outbreak in the world.
Public health officials have confirmed 1,499 new cases of Covid-19 this evening.
Hospitalised patients number 300 with 63 people receiving treatment in intensive care (ICU).
No data was published in relation to the number of Covid-related fatalities as this is done on a weekly basis since the HSE cyberattack.
Since the pandemic began, 5,209 Covid-related deaths have been reported as of Wednesday, September 29.
385,721 cases of Covid-19 have been reported in Ireland since the outbreak began.
As with previous updates, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) has said this evening's figures are subject to future validation.
Vaccine doses adminsitered number 7,200,652 representing a vaccination rate of nearly 92% of the eligible adult population older than 18.
It comes as a new report has ranked Ireland as the best country in the world in which to live with the Delta variant.
Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking ‘The Best and Worst Places to Be as We Learn to Live With Delta’, was published on Tuesday and saw Ireland jump three places to take the top slot.
Ireland began the year low in the monthly ranking when it had the worst Covid-19 outbreak in the world.
Now, having pulled off what Bloomberg described as a startling turnaround, Ireland has taken pole position from Norway.
The report credits the combination of restrictions on unvaccinated people entering the country and the vaccine rollout with the dramatic turnaround.
"Even as the peak summer travel season unfolded alongside delta’s spread, Ireland and places like Spain, the Netherlands and Finland held down serious illness and deaths through pioneering moves to largely limit quarantine-free entry to immunized people," the report states.
"Bestowing more domestic freedoms on the inoculated helped boost vaccination levels to some of the highest in the world—over 90% of Ireland’s adult population has received two shots—while allowing social activity to resume safely."
Ireland hit a low point in the Covid Resilience Ranking in January 2021 when the Alpha variant, first detected in the UK, was spreading rapidly in the community.
The country rose steadily before it surged ahead between June and July with progress continuing into September.
Bloomberg's ranking is compiled using 12 data indicators that span virus containment, the quality of healthcare, vaccination coverage, overall mortality and progress toward restarting travel and easing border curbs.
Over the past three months, European countries have dominated the top slots of the ranking while Southeast Asian economies populate the lower rungs.
"Once the gold standard for virus containment, the Asia-Pacific is faltering in the era of vaccination.
"Not only are their strict measures less effective in the face of delta, former top rankers in the region are also grappling with how to reopen after such a long period of isolationist border curbs."
Vaccine inequality persists meaning developing economies are being left far behind wealthier countries as the world tries to emerge from the pandemic.
With so many countries barely inoculated, the risk of another destructive variant emerging has never been higher, just as rich nations grapple with waning immunity from the first round of shots, the report warns.
