Letterkenny University Hospital
THE number of patients being treated for Covid-19 on ventilated beds or in critical care in Letterkenny is at its highest point since April.
There are four critically ill people with confirmed or suspected coronavirus this afternoon, according to latest figures contained in the ‘Covid-19 Daily Operations Update for Acute Hospitals’, which is published daily by the HSE.
Front line staff at Letterkenny University Hospital were caring for fifteen patients with confirmed Covid-19, as well as 13 suspected cases. There were no vacant beds in the hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU), where four critically ill patients were being treated for the coronavirus illness.
The report shows that there were 11 vacant beds in Letterkenny although due to the dynamic nature of reporting, the number of available beds may differ from day to day.
At the peak in April, Letterkenny General Hospital was treating 37 Covid-19 patients with five of them in intensive care. Since early May the ICU had been effectively free of coronavirus patients until last month.
Worryingly, the number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals and ICUs, both in Letterkenny and across the country, has been rising sharply despite stricter lockdown restrictions that have been in place across the country for more than a week.
Meanwhile, there have been more than 200 cases reported in Donegal over the past seven days with 56 new cases last night.
The growing levels of Covid-19 in Donegal in recent weeks are highlighted in new figures which show that three of the four worst affected areas in the country are in the county.
The latest Local Electoral Area (LEA) data shows that the national 14-day infection rate has increased from 88 cases per 100,000 population last week to 116 cases per 100,000 population this week.
According to the latest published data, the 14-day incidence of Covid-19 in all seven Electoral Areas of Donegal are above or at the national infection rate.
The data is updated weekly on Thursdays and illustrates where the virus is spreading across 166 local electoral areas.
It shows 87 confirmed cases of Covid-19 have been identified in Lifford-Stranorlar EA in the past week, added to the 69 cases reported a week earlier.
Sixty-four new cases were reported in the Letterkenny EA in the previous seven days. Between September 21-28 there were 35 cases reported in this area.
Glenties had 17 confirmed cases within the time period, whereas between September 8 -21, 22 cases had been reported here.
In Inishowen, the figures have spiked in the past week with Carndonagh (59) and Buncrana (54) recording 40 and 41 new cases respectively.
There were 42 cases in the Donegal EA within the past seven days with a total of 11 new cases reported in Milford last week.
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