FERMANAGH currently has the highest rate of Covid infection in the North, with cases skyrocketing locally in the past week.
In fact, it is possible the county has just witnessed its worst week of the pandemic in terms of case numbers so far.
According to figures from the Department of Health, the number of positive Covid cases in Fermanagh postcode areas has been doubling every week over the past month. In the seven days leading up to Monday this week there were 636 cases of Covid in Fermanagh postcode areas. That’s up from 309 the week before and 163 the week before that.
While the actual number of Covid cases in some other areas, such as Belfast, was higher than in Fermanagh, the rate of infection per head of population in Fermanagh’s postcode areas is the highest in the North.
Indeed, Fermanagh’s four postcode areas each occupied the top four spots in the North for rate of infection in the past week.
The Enniskillen area of BT74 had the highest rate in the North as a whole, with 188 cases in the past seven days, accounting for an infection rate of 1,063 per 100,000 population.
The BT93 area of Derrygonnelly, Belleek and Kesh, which once boasted the lowest rate in the North over a prolonged period, had the second highest rate of infection over the past week. There were 119 cases there, accounting for a rate of 1,053.
The third highest rate in the North was in the Ballinamallard and Irvinestown area of BT94, with 161 cases and a rate of 996. The fourth highest was in the BT92 area of Lisnaskea and Derrylin, where there were 168 cases accounting for a rate of 969.
For context, the same period the average rate of infection for the North as a whole was 528.
In the wider Fermanagh and Omagh Council area there e were 1,077 cases in the past seven days, with a rate of 917. The vast majority of cases, were among young people, with 355 among those aged 20-39 and 372 among those under 19-years-old.
While numbers are climbing among older age groups, they are doing so at a slower rate as the age groups grow older, showing the success of the vaccine roll out.
Meanwhile, there are 29 Covid patients in the SWAH, two of whom were in the ICU.
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