A boy has died of swine flu, the Department of Health announced tonight.
The victim - who had an underlying health condition - died in the east of the country.
The death bring to nine the numbers to die of the pandemic H1N1 virus in the State, and is the fourth this week.
The Department announced yesterday that two women from the east and a man from the south had died, all of whom had underlying health conditions.
Rates of infection in the community had “almost doubled” in the past week to 158.8 cases per 100,000 of the population, the HSE said last night. Highest rates of infection are among school children. Among five- to 14-year-olds, infection rates are at 448 cases per 100,000, up from 170 cases seven days ago. Among under-fives the rate is now 239 cases per 100,000, up from 86.1 the previous week.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) plans to have administered the first dose of the swine flu vaccine to people in at-risk groups by the end of next month. Earlier this week, the executive began delivering the vaccine to about 1,800 GPs who have agreed to vaccinate at-risk groups aged six months to 65 years
However, it will take 10 days before all vaccinating GPs receive doses of the vaccine. Special HSE clinics will be provided in areas where GPs are not vaccinating.
This morning, the HSE’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said some GPs have already begun administering the vaccine and that he is hopeful a single dose may be sufficient.
“We’ll have enough vaccine delivered though the general practises and clinics system in about a four-week period so by mid-November to enable each person in those [at-risk] groups to have one single dose of vaccine,” Dr Holohan said.
“By mid-November we should know if a second dose of vaccine is necessary for those groups and we’ll give further advice at that point,” he told RTÉ radio.
Dr Holohan said the number of outbreaks in schools is still very modest. “What that suggests to me is that the schools in fact - parents, management boars, teachers, principals are handling this very responsibly.” He said the fact that the schools are not open next week may have an impact on the rates of infection.
Dublin's three paediatric hospitals have already cancelled some elective surgery to deal with an increased swine flu workload.
Dr Paul Kavanagh, public health specialist with the HSE, said other hospitals were poised to manage a potential surge in cases by also postponing lower priority work.