Highest Covid rates in Sligo and Waterford at start of year

Some 1,838 people tested positive for the virus nationally between January 8 and January 14. Picture: iStock

Sligo has seen the highest rate of Covid-19 in the first few weeks of 2023, with Waterford also ranking high in the list.

Some 1,838 people tested positive for the virus in the period between January 8 and January 14, bringing the total number of cases for the year so far to 5,312 nationally.

The Covid hub set up by the Government in the wake of the first cases in Ireland back in 2020 records the incidence rates as well as county-by-county breakdowns for cases.

The latest data, correct up to January 16, shows that Sligo had the highest incidence rate for the first 14 days of the year.

Its rate of 189.2 cases per 100,000 population saw 124 people test positive in the most recent period measured by the hub.

Waterford is in second place in terms of incidence rate, with 216 positive PCR tests in the previous fortnight producing an incidence rate of 185.9 cases per 100,000 people.

Kilkenny (181.4), Westmeath (166.7), and Offaly (162.9) round out the top five.

Rates have fallen considerably since the Christmas period, which saw some counties post rates of more than 300 cases per 100,000 people.

All of the bottom five counties have rates of below 100 cases per 100,000 population.

Lowest rate

Monaghan has the lowest rate of 61.9, with Wicklow, Louth, Clare, and Mayo also managing to contain the virus in 2023 so far.

At one point during lockdown in 2022, one county recorded a rate of over 7,000 cases per 100,000 population.

A total of 37 people have died from issues relating to the virus so far this year.

There have been no major jumps in the number of people in hospitals or intensive care units with Covid to date in 2023.

It comes as a new sub-variant of Covid-19 which is more contagious and is surging across America has been identified in Ireland, although in low numbers.

XBB.1.5, nicknamed Kraken, is estimated to be 113% more transmissible than previous forms, European health authorities have said.

Across Europe, there is a risk this new variant “may have an increasing effect” on the number of cases, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said.

It estimated, however, that this will take time, saying “but not within the coming month as the variant is currently only present at very low levels in the EU/EEA”.