Galway Bay fm newsroom – The Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of 93 additional deaths related to COVID-19.

Of the deaths reported today, 3 deaths occurred in December and 89* occurred in January.

The median age of those who died was 82 years and the age range was 41-99 years. There are no newly reported deaths in healthcare workers. There are no newly reported deaths in a young person under the age of 30.

There has been a total of 2,708** COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland.

As of midnight, Monday 18^th January, the HPSC has been notified of 2,001 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 176,839*** confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland. 

Of the cases notified today:

• 892 are men / 1,098 are women
• 55% are under 45 years of age
• The median age is 42 years old
• 701 in Dublin, 204 in Cork, 102 in Waterford, 98 in Meath, 90 in Donegal and the remaining 806 cases are spread across all other counties. 

As of 2pm today, 1,949 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 202 were in ICU at 11am. 100 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours.

Dr Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said; “While we are starting to see the early results of our collective efforts to minimise the transmission of the virus, we are very sadly reporting an additional 93 deaths today. We cannot afford to drop our guard against the very high levels of infection that remain in the community at present. COVID-19 ICU and hospitalisation numbers are of critical concern to us, representing a very significant pressure on our healthcare workers and on the provision of acute medical and surgical non-COVID care. We need everyone to stay at home, other than for essential reasons. The more that each individual follows this advice in their everyday lives, the more we can drive down the spread of COVID-19 and minimise the impact on vital healthcare services, patients and frontline workers.”

The COVID-19 Dashboard provides up-to-date information on the key indicators of COVID-19 in the community.

ENDS//

*There is 1 death where the date of death is still under investigation.

**Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 1 death. The figure of 2,708 deaths reflects this

***Validation of data at the HPSC has resulted in the denotification of 5 confirmed cases. The figure of 176,839 confirmed cases reflects this.

Today’s cases, 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population and new cases in last 14 days (as of midnight 18 January 2021) (incidence rate based on Census 2016 county population)

5-day moving average 2,758

7-day incidence 447.5

Galway Bay fm newsroom – A Clifden truck driver caught transporting over €1.2 million in criminal cash in his truck has been jailed for two years.

The Circuit Criminal Court heard that 45 year old Noel Purcell told Gardaí he had agreed to transport the money to Holland after he met a man on a boat and confided in him about his personal debt issues.

Noel Purcell, described by his defence team as “vulnerable” and “easily-led”, told Gardaí he had been offered €4,000 to take the money to Holland.

He was struggling with mortgage and credit card debt at the time, the court heard.

Noel Purcell of Tullyvoheen, Clifden pleaded guilty to one count of possessing cash that was the proceeds of a crime at the Naas Road, Dublin on July 12 last year.

Detective Garda Redmond O’Leary told the prosecution that following a surveillance operation, Gardaí pulled Noel Purcell over on the Naas Road on the day in question.

In the cab of the truck, Gardaí found two large bags containing several packages wrapped in duct tape, which turned out to be cash.

When counted by Gardaí, the cash amounted to almost €1.29m.

Detective Garda O’Leary agreed that Noel Purcell was vulnerable and easily led, and said Gardaí accepted his version of events.

Judge Melanie Greally imposed a seven year prison term but suspended five years of it on condition Noel Purcell be of good behaviour.

The court heard that the Probation Service assessed Noel Purcell as unlikely to re-offend.

Galway Bay fm newsroom – The most common energy rating for homes in Galway is now a medium of C or D.

That’s according to new figures from the CSO on the BER rating for domestic homes.

In Galway City, the most common performance ratings are now C3 and D1, followed by C2.

While in the county, C2 and C3 are the most common BER ratings, followed by D1.

Four percent of city homes have the lowest efficiency rating of G, while a further four percent have the highest rating of A.

Four percent of county homes also have an A rating – but the percentage of homes with a G rating stands at eight percent.

Nationally, Dublin County, Kildare and Meath have the highest proportion of homes with an A rating.

While around one in eight homes in Roscommon, Leitrim, Offaly and Tipperary have the lowest possible rating.

Meanwhile, the average age of a city home is 25 years, while the figure for the county is slightly higher at 29 years of age.