Coronavirus: Fewer than five confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Donegal by St. Patrick's Day

An analysis of cases up until midnight on Monday, March 16, provides greater detail on who is getting infected and where.

Yesterday the number of cases in Ireland rose to 434 - 366 cases in the south and 68 in the north.

However, the geographical breakdown provided by the Department of Health in Dublin used only the 271 cases that had been confirmed in the south by midnight on Monday.

It shows that Donegal was one of 15 counties were there had been fewer than five cases.

Dublin had the highest number of cases at 129, followed by Cork (48) and Limerick (14).

There were also more than five cases in Kerry (6), Waterford (7), Westmeath (7) and Wicklow (9).

The National Public Health Emergency Team confirmed that there were 23 clusters of cases around the country - the 26 southern counties, that is, - and that up until midnight on Monday 42% cases were travel related, 22% were associated with community transmission, 17% were as a result of local transmission and 20% remained under investigation.

Of the 271 cases notified; 40% are male and 59% female.

Two thirds of cases were younger than 55 years of age, with almost one in four cases aged 35 – 44 years, and 1 in 5 cases were healthcare workers with 37% of these cases associated with travel.

As of Monday night 84 people (31%) of the 271 confirmed cases in the south had been hospitalised. Six (2%) had been admitted to Intensive Care Units; two people had tragically died (0.7%); and 59 (22%) people affected were health care workers.

There is no geographical breakdown of the 68 cases of COVID-19 that had been confirmed in the North by Wednesday.