Covid-19 cases rose over the past three months with one death last week

Sarah Slater

The number of Covid-19 cases has continually risen over the past three months and last week one person died, the infectious diseases watchdog has said.

Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) data up to last Friday, August 16th showed there were 587 cases last week, 238 people needed to be hospitalised, two were admitted to Intensive Care Units (ICU) and there was one death. 

From January 1st last to the start of June, the average number of cases stood between less than 100 to 200, however, from June until the second week of August cases have steadily climbed to almost 600 cases per week. 

Those aged 65 or older represented the largest proportion of cases last week, with numbers rising to almost 300, followed by the 45 to 64 age group and the 15 and 24 range.

There has been a consistent low number of ICU admissions since January up to August while deaths have also been in single digit numbers.

Of the outbreaks in healthcare settings, nursing homes were where the majority were reported from, followed by hospitals and residential homes.

Official Covid-19 figures are acknowledged to underreport the true prevalence of the virus, due to a reduction in testing since the pandemic.

The increase in cases is expected, as the virus tends to have two peaks: one in the winter and the other in the summer.

The Covid-19 variant XFG accounted for 66 per cent of cases in the last five week while 17 per cent was the NB.1.8.1 type and the LP.8.1. Other variants have included XEC, XBB.1.5-like, BA.2.86+R346T, BA.2.86+F456L and BA.2.86 recombinant.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) up until August 3rd shows that there were 56,174 reported cases worldwide.