BREAKING: 'Significant concerns' remain as Limerick records highest daily Covid figure since latest surge began

“SIGNIFICANT concerns” are continuing to be expressed in relation to a Covid-19 surge in Limerick. 

Provisional data shows that the latest daily figure for Limerick - up to midnight on Wednesday - is 61 new cases of the virus. 

This is the highest daily figure for cases since the latest surge began. 

There has now been 420 cases in Limerick between May 16 and May 26.

A total of 436 new cases of Covid-19 across the country were confirmed this Thursday evening.

Asked this Thursday evening at the weekly HSE media briefing about the recent spike in cases in the Limerick area, HSE CEO Paul Reid said: "What we are seeing every week is that it changes in different areas. I know last week it was the Mid West, Letterkenny, some parts of Dublin and some parts of Offaly so we see a change on a weekly basis but, in particular, there were issues in the Mid West around gatherings and social gatherings that they have - I think it has improved slightly."

Chief Operations Officer Anne O'Connor added: "They are still reporting it as being very very busy. They are still saying that they have very significant concerns as of this morning in the Mid West in terms of both testing and what they are seeing".

The HSE Mid West Community Healthcare said this Thursday afternoon that “Limerick is experiencing a high level of demand for Covid-19 testing”. 

“There is capacity each day in our Ennis test centre until 18:30 and Nenagh test centre until 19:45. We would encourage people to attend these alternative centres if you have means to travel,” they tweeted.

There have been eight further Covid-related deaths in Ireland reported to the Department of Health up to yesterday.

Due to the cyber attack on the Health Service Executive, this is the only information about how many people have died with coronavirus since 14 May when the HSE IT systems were attacked.

HSE Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry told the press briefing today that, as of yesterday, 97 cases of the variant that originated in India had been found in Ireland.