Ahead of the return of indoor dining later in July, Ireland seems to be heading for a dangerous fourth wave of the coronavirus - with the Delta variant playing a huge role.
The variant is responsible for approximately 70% of the new daily cases, which are spiking after 994 new infections were confirmed on Thursday.
There are crucial parameters now available to health officials and the public though, with the majority of the HSE servers fully recovered from the cyberattack earlier in 2021.
One of those is the county-by-county breakdown of the incidence rates for Covid.
The data is slowly being reuploaded and it gives us an idea of how each area is dealing with the Delta variant.
As of Wednesday, here are the five worst-affected regions.
Donegal - 506.3 cases per 100,000
The county struggled with the virus earlier in 2021, with NPHET having to meet local reps. It seems that may soon be an option as the Delta variant rages across the Ulster county.
Louth - 289.4 cases per 100,000
The smallest county in Ireland had the second highest number of cases in the last 14 days of all the Leinster counties. Clusters and outbreaks have caused a sharp rise in the totals, leading to a rise in the rate too.
Meath- 233.7 cases per 100,000
Just like their neighbours on either side, some areas in Meath are having serious battles with the Delta variant.
Dublin - 220.7 cases per 100,000
Dublin's rate will always be high until Covid is eradicated, simply down to it having the highest population. The same applies to it's case numbers, with no other county coming close to the 2,974 cases recorded in the capital in the last 14 days.
Limerick - 216.5 cases per 100,000
Like Donegal, the rate in Limerick has fluctuated in the last few months. At one point it was the worst-affected region by far, but nowadays it sits third after a further 422 cases in the past two weeks.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Tipperary has the lowest incidence rate in the country (52.0) followed by Longford (66.1), Kilkenny (72.6), Cork (78.3) and Clare (79.1).
