Parts of Donegal again record highest Covid levels in State

The highest rate of Covid-19 in a local area has nearly doubled in the last week, with a number of localities in Co Donegal again recording particularly high incidences of the virus.

A local electoral ward in Carndonagh had the highest rate of Covid-19 in the State with a recorded incidence rate of 1,975 infections per 100,000 people. The area had 335 cases reported among the its population of 16,964 people in the latest 14-day period according to latest figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC).

The national incidence of Covid-19 stands at 245 cases per 100,000 people.

Buncrana local electoral area (LEA) 5 had the second highest rate of Covid-19 according to the published figures.

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Last week the Co Donegal area, which is on the border of Derry, had an incidence of 1,073, which has since increased to 1,238 cases per 100,000 people.

The figures are based on the number of new cases in each of the State’s 166 local electoral areas, for the 14 days up to Monday, 19th July. The data is published on the Government’s Covid-19 Data Hub each week, usually on Thursday night.

Ardee LEA 6, Co Louth, had the third highest incidence in the State, at 774 infections per 100,000 people. The local area recorded 196 new cases in the two-week period, within its population of 25,317.

Covid-19 cases increased sharply in Galway city central LEA 6, which recorded the fourth highest incidence of the virus, at 636 per 100,000. There were 170 new cases among the 26,702 people living in the electoral ward.

Areas in Donegal made up three of the five locations with the highest rates of the virus, and the county has previously been singled out for criticism, due to high spikes of Covid-19 throughout the pandemic.

A local electoral area in Ongar, west Dublin, had the highest Covid-19 rate in the capital, and the sixth highest nationally. The suburb reported an incidence of 557 cases per 100,000 people.

Two local electoral wards in Dundalk, Co Louth, had the seventh and eighth highest incidence of the virus.

Lifford-Stranorlar LEA 6, Co Donegal, and Ratoath, Co Meath, had the ninth and tenth highest local rates of Covid-19 in the country.

A number of other areas in Dublin reported high rates of Covid-19, including Howth-Malahide LEA 7, with an incidence of 445, following 250 new cases in the ward’s population of 56,000.

Other local electoral areas with higher rates of Covid-19 included Athlone, Galway city east, and Firhouse, Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart, and Castleknock in Dublin.

Lismore LEA 3, Co Waterford, had the lowest incidence in the State, with fewer than five recorded cases of the disease in the most recent 14-day period.