Leitrim has seen the largest drop in confirmed Covid-19 cases in the country, down 82 per cent, new figures show.
Research by the Central Statistics Office shows the Wild Rose county recorded the largest drop of any county between February 26th and March 5th this year.
The week ending March 5th marked the eighth week in a row that Leitrim recorded fewer than 50 cases.
The number of new cases has fallen nationally by 31 per cent, although this varies across counties from an 82 per cent decrease in Leitrim to a seven per cent increase in Wicklow, the only county to record an increase.
Donegal saw the second largest drop at 63 per cent, with Galway close behind in third with 62 per cent.
This is the sixth week in a row that Roscommon has recorded less than 50 new cases and the fourth such week for Sligo.
For the week ending March 5th, the number of weekly cases was 2,843, a decrease of 31 per cent from the previous week.
Those aged 25-44 made up 33 per cent of confirmed cases that week, with those aged 65 and above making up nine per cent.
There were 114 health care workers diagnosed in the same week, the lowest weekly figure since the week ending August 28th.
With 1,272, Dublin accounted for almost a half of all new cases and it was the ninth week in a row that weekly cases in the capital have fallen.
Meath was the county with the second highest number of new cases, with 158.
Hospital admissions have been steadily decreasing too.
Having hit a peak of 1,376 in the week ending January 15th, they have now plummeted to 173 in the meek ending March 5th.
Admissions to intensive care units continue to trend downwards as well, from a peak of 130 in the week ending January 8 to less than five in the most recent figures.
The number of Covid-19 related deaths has also fallen sharply in recent weeks.
At the peak of the third wave, 399 deaths were record in the week ending January 22nd.
That has fallen to 51 deaths in the week ending March 5th.
COVID Deaths and Cases From 28 February 2020 to 05 March 2021https://t.co/a2yOH8ry1S #CSOIreland #Ireland #COVIDIreland #Health pic.twitter.com/7gfbmpWCPE
— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) March 12, 2021
Only three counties recorded more than five Covid-19 related deaths in the last week.
They were Dublin, 11, Cork, six, and Donegal, five.
The virus continues to affect the elderly most severely, with 86% of deaths among people aged 65 years and over.
There were a total of 4,405 deaths linked to the virus that were recorded in the most recent figures.
Of these, 4,154 were listed as confirmed cases, with 251 deemed probable cases.
There have been just 15 deaths officially recorded among health care workers, but a further 487 are categorised as “unknown”.
