Cork enters New Year with 45 Covid-19 patients in hospital 

Cork has entered the New Year with a total of 45 Covid-19 patients in city hospitals, according to the latest HSE Covid-19 Daily Operations Update.

It represents an increase in the number of people with Covid-19 across Cork hospitals since Wednesday, December 29 when 36 people were in hospital with the virus.

As of 8pm on Friday, December 31, there are 28 Covid positive patients in Cork University Hospital (CUH) and a further 17 Covid positive patients in the Mercy University Hospital (MUH).

CUH also has two suspected cases of Covid-19.

There are five Covid-19 positive patients in ICU at CUH and one Covid positive patient currently in ICU at MUH.

Nationally, there were over 20,000 cases of Covid-19 recorded for the second consecutive day.

A total of 20,110 cases were confirmed and there were 682 Covid-19 patients hospitalised, of which 86 are in ICU.

According to the latest epidemiology report prepared by Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) on December 24, there were 4,041 cases of Covid-19 recorded in Cork in the seven days from December 17 to midnight on December 23.

The seven-day incidence rate per 100,000 population was 744.4.

In the 14 days from December 10 to December 23, there were 7,796 cases of Covid-19 recorded in Cork and the 14-day incidence rate over the same period was 1,436.1.

The five-day moving average in Cork from December 19 to 23 was 509.