As the Level Five lockdown was this week extended until March, the latest figures for the prevalence of the virus in Local Electoral Areas showed that COVID has continued its surge in Cork City and County. While the figures for Cork city are extremely high - considerably higher than the national average of 1,334.6 cases per 100,000 of the population - the figures for LEAs in North Cork, Duhallow and Mid-Cork are also close to or above the national average. Fermoy is once again the LEA with the highest prevalence of the illness with 513 cases in the fortnight between January 4 and 18 and a rate of 1409.1 cases per 100,000. Mallow has had 358 cases, which is equivalent to 1,227.8 cases per 100,000.