Covid-19 cases continue to increase in Offaly as the county still has highest rate of virus in the country

Covid-19 cases continue to increase in Offaly today as the county still has the highest rate of virus in the country.

Latest figures from the National Public Health Emergency Team show that there were 25 new cases of the virus in Offaly today bringing the total for the last two weeks to 303. 

Offaly still has the highest rate of the virus which now stands at 388.7 cases per 100,000 for the last 14 days. The rate for the country is down to 150.2 cases per 100,000.

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As of midnight, Friday 19th March, the HPSC has been notified of 525 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 229,831 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland.

Of the cases notified today 266 were  in Dublin, 33 in Meath, 29 in Wexford, 25 in Offaly, 24 in Donegal, and the remaining 148 cases are spread across 19 other counties. 

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As of 8am today, 328 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 83 are in ICU. There have been 27 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours

The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of nine additional deaths related to COVID-19. Seven of the deaths occurred in March, and two deaths occurred in February.