Average age of people Testing Positive for COVID
There has been a “fairly radical shift” in the average age of people testing positive for COVID, according to the head of the HSE.
Vaccination is now open to anyone aged 40 and over with more than three million doses having been administered in Ireland.
He said there are also “very strong benefits” in terms of the cases loads in recent weeks – with younger people now making up the vast majority of cases.
“We are seeing a fairly radical shift in the percentage of cases below the age of 44,” he said. “The last 14 days, about 78% of cases are less than 44-years and under.
“Just about 7% of them are over the age of 55 and 2% over the age of 65 so we are seeing the benefits of the vaccination programme in terms of reducing that sickness and mortality.”
He said businesses reopening on Monday supported public health guidelines “really well” – but warned that it is essential they continue to do so due to concerns over the Delta variant, first identified in India.
“I think overall the guidance that was given to people in terms of opening from this weekend, by and large, was really well supported certainly from what I have seen around the place, with people still holding the public health measures, keeping social distance but being able to enjoy the outdoors with maybe a meal or a pint or something like that so it was good to see,” he said.
“But I think it is always about reinforcing for us how volatile this can always be – particularly with a variant like the Delta variant.”
Credit to : NewsTalk