Covid-19 incidence rate falls by 60% in Mullingar area

(Above) The Covid-19 testing centre on the St Loman's campus in Mullingar.

The Covid-19 incidence rate in the Mullingar Local Electoral Area (LEA) has fallen by 60 per cent in the space of a week.

According to the HSE's weekly data on local electoral areas, which is released every Thursday evening, the incidence rate in the Mullingar at midnight April 12 was 127.1 per 100,000 compared to 319.7 per 100,000 seven days previously.

The incidence rates in Westmeath's three other LEAs also fell over the past week. In the Moate LEA, it fell from 130.1 per 100,000 on April 5 to 113.9 per 100,000 a week later, a drop of 12 per cent. In the Kinnegad LEA it fell from 166.1 per 100,000 to 152.3 per 100,000 (-8%).

The Athlone LEA's incidence rate fell slightly from 304.1 per 100,000 on April 5 to 299.7 per 100,000, a decrease of 1.4%. The national incidence rate on April 12 was 131.7 per 100,000.

After a number of weeks where the incidence rates in Westmeath were the second highest in the country after Offaly, the figures have started to move in the right direction over the last 10 days.

According to latest figures published by the HSE yesterday, there were nine new cases on Wednesday, while the five day moving average was six and the 14 day incidence rate was 153.2 per 100,000. A total of 136 new cases had been recorded in the previous 14 days.

A week earlier on April 8, the five day moving average in the county was 10, the 14 day incidence rate was 261.3 and 232 new cases had been identified in the previous 14 days.