The daily cases at that point reached a plateau until January 4, which was a turning point with daily cases beginning to fall.
The statistics show that the number of people who have died due to COVID-19 has increased for the last four weeks and was 85 for the week ending 8 January.
The number of cases for the week ending 8 January was 26,343, a decrease of 8,670 cases from the previous week, which was the highest to date with 35,013 cases.
Median age
The median age of new confirmed COVID-19 cases was 37 for the week ending 8 January.
In the last two weeks, the 25-44 age group has made up 36% of weekly confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Hospitalisation rates are highest for the over-80s at 255 and for those aged 65-79 years at 258 per 1,000 confirmed cases.
Hospitalisation rates are lowest for those aged 0-24 years at 18 per 1,000 confirmed cases.
The average number of contacts per positive case per week was three in the week ending 8 January, down from four contacts in late December.
The latest CSO information bulletin uses Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting (CIDR) data provided to the CSO by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre and data from the HSE’s Swiftcare (A2i) and COVID Care Tracker (CCT) systems.
Confirmed cases
Dublin accounted for just under a third (8,050) of all new cases for the week ending 8 January and it was the second week in a row that Dublin had more than 8,000 weekly cases.
Cork had the second highest number of new cases (3,223) for the week ending 8 January.
Five other counties — Galway, Limerick, Louth, Meath and Wexford — had more than 1,000 weekly cases.
The median age of new confirmed COVID-19 cases was 37 for the week ending 8 January. The median age for all cases is 38. Galway has the lowest median age at 31 while Wicklow is highest at 42.
Since the start of the pandemic, some 7,316 more females were diagnosed with COVID-19 than males.
The 25-44 age group still showed the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases at 51,321. In the last two weeks, this age group has made up 36% of weekly confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Hospitalisations
There were 149,883 referrals for community testing in the week ending 8 January.
Referrals for testing increased in the last week, in particular among the 25-44 age groups, which increased from 50,260 to 58,547 in the week ending 8 January.
Some 70% of referrals were from GPs in the week ending 08 January. Analysis on referral speciality type shows that while residential settings/ institutions/ schools’ referrals for testing have remained consistent for the last number of weeks, general COVID-19 testing and healthcare/essential worker testing has increased in January to date.
The number of people who have died due to COVID-19 has been greater than 25 for each of the last 13 weeks, and Dublin continues to be the worst hit.
Linked deaths
Since the start of the pandemic, the total number of people who have died due to COVID-19 in Ireland is 2,096, with a further 231 deaths cited as probable deaths linked to the virus. For the week ending 8 January, 85 deaths were recorded.
The virus claimed the lives of 122 more men than women up to and including the week ending 8 January.
It also continues to impact the older age groups the hardest, with 64% of all confirmed COVID-19 deaths to date in the 80 or older age group.
The overall mortality rate is 26 per 1,000 confirmed cases.