Dublin, Sep 25 (IANS): Children aged below 14 now account for the highest Covid-19 infection rates among all age groups in Ireland, according to the figures released by the country's Central Statistics Office (CSO).

In the week ending September 17, a total of 8,662 confirmed cases were reported in Ireland, of which children aged below 14 accounted for 34 per cent, the highest figure among all age groups, Xinhua news agency quoted the CSO as saying on Friday.

Of all the cases reported in the above-mentioned week, people aged 25 to 44 accounted for 27 per cent, followed by 17 per cent for those aged 45 to 64, 15 per cent for those aged 15 to 24 and 7 per cent for those aged 65 and over.

The CSO figures also revealed that the share of children aged below 14 in the weekly cases reported in Ireland has almost tripled when compared with two months ago.

In the week ending July 16, children aged below 14 accounted for only 12 per cent of all the new cases in Ireland.

Since then, the share of children of this age group in the weekly cases in the country has witnessed a consistent rise.

By the week ending September 10, children aged below 14 replaced people aged 25 to 44 for the first time to account for most of the new cases in Ireland.

Ireland has already started to inoculate its children aged 12 to 15 with Covid-19 vaccines, but it has not announced any plan regarding the vaccination of kids aged below 12.

The Irish Department of Health on Friday reported 1,163 new cases of Covid-19 in the country.

To date, Ireland's daily cases have remained above the 1,000 level for 70 days in a row despite the fact over 90 per cent of adults in the country have been fully vaccinated.