Lowest weekly increase in Donegal covid-19 cases
Donegal had its lowest weekly number of new infections since the coronavirus outbreak began, with just seven new cases detected in the county over the past seven days.
Last night, the Department of Health reported that three new cases had been reported in Donegal up to midnight on Saturday 9 May, to bring the total to 472.
The increase of three came after three days where no cases at all were detected in the county.
Nationally, just 139 new cases were reported yesterday, 11 May, to bring the overall total of covid-19 infections in the Republic to 23,135.
A further 15 covid-19 related deaths were notified by the Department yesterday, to bring the death toll from the disease in the Republic to a staggering 1,467.
The containment of the disease in Donegal is reflected in the number of cases currently being treated in Letterkenny General Hospital.
As of Sunday night, there were 10 covid-19 positive patients in Letterkenny, down from the 20 patients that were receiving treatment there seven days earlier.
At the height of the crisis, Letterkenny General Hospital was treating 37 covid-19 patients with five of them in intensive care.
Happily, there were no covid-19 patients in intensive care in the hospital on Sunday night – seven days earlier there was one patient in the ICU.
None of this is to say that the virus is absent in Donegal. Two new patients suffering from covid-19 were admitted to Letterkenny General Hospital over the past week. That’s down from five new admissions in the previous week and 12 admissions in mid-April when the hospital was treating around 35 patients.
Letterkenny General Hospital continues to accept admissions of non-covid-19 patients, visible through the vacant beds data published by the HSE. While the number of vacant beds fell to 37 last Thursday, it rose again as discharges took place over the weekend. On Sunday night, there were 75 vacant beds in the hospital.
