COVID-19

Six people from a single household permitted at any one time

Six people from a single household permitted at any one time

By Muireann Duffy

Under NPHET recommendations the restrictions on social gatherings in the home will be ramped up for the entire country.

That means that you can only have a maximum of six people from one other household visit your home or garden.

It's in a bid to limit the amount of contacts people are having socially and to target community transmission.

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So effectively every county will stay on the level it's at currently for everything except for visitations to the home, which will be limited to six people from one other household.

No counties will be moved up a level of restrictions today, with talks of Cork and Roscommon potentially moving up a level along with Dublin and Donegal.

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Leitrim has the lowest number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 according to data from the Health Surveillance and Protection Centre (HSPC).

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On September 29th, only five active cases of the virus were recorded in the county, followed by Carlow with just 16 active cases.

Both counties are among the eight which have noted a decrease in cases since September 16th, along with Kerry, Kilkenny, Laois, Limerick, Louth and Waterford.

The incidence rates in a number of counties has continued to rise over the last number of days, notably in Donegal and Monaghan.

Leitrim has also taken over from Tipperary as the county with the lowest 14-day incidence rate of confirmed cases per 100,000, with just 12.5, while Tipperary has risen to 24.4.

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Also on the lower end of the scale is Kilkenny, Carlow and Kerry, as Mayo and Sligo have also maintained low rates of the virus despite much higher levels in near-by Galway, Roscommon and Donegal.

Four counties recorded incidence rates in excess of 100 on September 29th; Dublin, Donegal, Roscommon and Monaghan.

Donegal and Dublin are currently under Level Three restrictions as per the Government's Living with Covid plan, however additional restrictions for other counties have not been rules out by the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) to curb the spread of the virus in other areas.

NPHET are due to meet today to discuss where Level Three restrictions may be needed.

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Speaking at a Covid-19 press briefing on Wednesday evening, acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Ronan Glynn said the window of opportunity to stop the rapid spread of the virus from becoming a national issue was closing.

"The sooner people act, the sooner we can turn the tide on this," he said.

429 cases of the virus were recorded in the Republic yesterday, while Northern Ireland reported their largest daily increase of cases since the pandemic began.

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